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A SHORT HISTORY 

OF 

SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 



A Short History 

of 



Social Life in England 



BY 

M. B. SYNGE, F.R.HIST.S. 

AUTHOR OP "the STORY OP THE WORLD," **THE WORLD's CHILD- 
HOOD," "life op GORDON," "GREAT MEN AND GREAT DEEDS," ETC. 




NEW YORK 

A. S. BARNES & COMPANY 



3h 



nRARYofoIdNoiESS 
tm Copies Received 
. £B 18 1907 



_^«J)opyriffht Entry ^ 

CLASS <3L. XXCm No. 

COPY B. 



COPTRiaHT, 1906, BY 

A. S. BARNES & COMPANY 
NSW TOSS 



SfV 



# 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 
INTRODUCTORY, « t * t xi 



CHAPTER I 

THE SPEECHLESS PAST • « » • I 

CHAPTER II 

A GREAT CIVILISATION: B.C. 55-A.D. 410 . 15 



CHAPTER III 

FROM THE SHORES OF THE NORTH SEA ; 449-597 3I 



vi SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 



CHAPTER IV 

PAGE 

OUR GREAT INHERITANCE: 597-I066 • « 47 



CHAPTER V 

SAXON AND NORMAN AND DANE ARE WE": 

I066-1204 • . • • 61 



CHAPTER VI 
AN AGE OF promise: 1204-1250 • • 75 

CHAPTER VII 

THE DAWN OF LUXURY: 1250-I348 . • 87 

CHAPTER VIII 

DEPOPULATION : I348-1399 • « • 99 



CONTENTS vii 

CHAPTER IX 

PAGE 

RISE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS: I399-I485, « I09 

CHAPTER X 

CHURCH AND PEOPLE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 1 23 

CHAPTER XI 

LIFE UNDER HENRY VIII. : 1509-1547 , • ^35 

CHAPTER XII 

THE NEW worship: 1509-1558 » i I49 

CHAPTER XIII 

"MERRIE ENGLAND'*: 1558-1603 * . l6l 



viii SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 

CHAPTER XIV 



PAGE 



"merrie ENGLAND" (continued)'. 1558-1603 175 

CHAPTER XV 
THE puritans: 1603-1642 • , • 191 

CHAPTER XVI 

ENGLAND A COMMONWEALTH: 1642-1660 • 207 

CHAPTER XVII 

THE RESTO]RATION : 1660-1689 » • • 219 

CHAPTER XVIII 

AFTER THE REVOLUTION: 1689-1702 . 235 



CONTENTS ix 

CHAPTER XIX 

PAGE 

UNDER "GOOD QUEEN ANNE " : 1702-1714 • 25 1 

CHAPTER XX 

THE HOUSE OF HANOVER: 1714-1727 , 267 

CHAPTER XXI 

COUNTRY life: 1727-17^^2 • . , 283 

CHAPTER XXII 

THE NEW PHILANTHROPY: 1742-1785 . 297 

CHAPTER XXIII 
THE "quality": 1 785-1802 . . , 309 



X SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 



CHAPTER XXIV 

PAGE 
DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: 1802-182O 323 



CHAPTER XXV 
progress: 1820-1837 • t « » 337 

CHAPTER XXVI 

UNDER QUEEN VICTORIA: 1837-1865 « 353 

CHAPTER XXVII 

AN AGE OF WONDER : 1865-1885 • • 369 

CHAPTER XXVIII 
to-day: 1885-1906 . « t « 383 

APPENDIX . • • • • 395 

INDEX • • • • • 405 



INTRODUCTORY 

THIS sketch of the social life of our fore- 
fathers throughout the ages that are past is 
dedicated to all English-speaking peoples, who 
are proud to look back to a common ancestry. 
The race has burst the bounds of its old island 
home. Far and wide, over the length and 
breadth of the world, England's children are 
scattered, but they never forget that the old 
country is the land of their fathers. Their distant 
homes are yet English homes — they themselves 
are yet Englishmen. And there are those, 
too, across the Atlantic who still to-day claim 
with us a common fatherhood. America forms 
no part of our great Empire; her Government 
and her Constitution are different, but her tradi- 
tions are the same ; and in any review of the past 
all are alike, one 

"Brother with brother. 
Sons of one Mother.** 

zi 



xii SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 

This is no attempt to record the glorious 
achievements of past ages ; there is little con- 
cerning governments and kings, religion or litera- 
ture, science or art. It is merely a sketch of the 
material conditions in which our ancestors lived 
and died. It is pre-eminently a book of detail. 
It presents a brief glimpse of their houses, their 
food, clothes, manners, punishments, of their virives 
and children, of their gardens, their education, 
with some account of the social changes that have 
taken place throughout the ages. At the end of 
the book will be found an Appendix of some of 
the most useful articles introduced into England 
during each period. Some knowledge of the 
outlines of English history is presupposed, so 
that we may transport ourselves in imagination 
into that vanished past, which no historian can 
adequately bridge over. We can realise those silent 
figures, whose names are so familiar, in the out- 
ward guise that conveys so much to our material 
natures, calling up, perhaps, some faint conception 
of the appearance of our ancestors in the days 
that are gone. 

Thus, from the speechless past to the present 
day, we have traced evolution from the old stone 
tool to the modern intricate machinery, from the 



INTEODUCTORY xiii 

dark underground cave to the palace of light and 
air, from the slow jog-trot of the pack-horse to 
rapid transit by train and motor, from the hope- 
lessness of separation to constant communication. 
Much is necessarily omitted, but those who can 
read between the lines will find the evolution of 
many things that are vital in the life of to-day. 
Perhaps one of the most striking points in the 
study of material progress is the sturdy opposition 
experienced in every age to inevitable advance — 
an inability to perceive the true nature of progress. 
Thus, with the substitution of chimneys for the 
old hearth fire, we get Holinshed (1571) groaning 
over the new-fashioned idea which sent smoke up 
a given channel instead of allowing it to escape 
through any chance crack in the roof; while 
Slaney waxed indignant that oak had taken the 
place of willow, exclaiming in his wrath, " For- 
merly houses were of willow, and men of oak ; 
nowadays houses are of oak, and men of willow." 
The sighs of Evelyn are well known. The ideal 
days were past when men courted and chose their 
wives for their modesty and homely virtues rather 
than for their fortune ; when the daughter wore the 
selfsame kirtle, gown, and petticoat in which her 
mother had been wedded, and a steady mare 



xiv SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 

carried the good knight and his courteous lady 
behind him to church and to visit in the neigh- 
bourhood, instead of in the hell-carts and rattling 
coaches then coming into fashion ; when men of 
estate studied the public good, serving their 
generation in honour, and leaving their lands to 
a hopeful heir, who followed the example of 
noble and worthy ancestors. Then there came 
the opposition to steam, when the long ice age 
of handwork gave way to an age of machine 
production ; the abuse of trains, the revolt against 
gas-lighting, and to-day the opposition to motors, 
as yet in their infancy. 

But this sketch of social life deals with matters 
yet more mundane, and the reader can deduce such 
facts — not wholly uninteresting — as these: that 
William the Conqueror ate with his fingers and 
never saw a coal fire, that the two thousand cooks 
of Richard II. could make neither a plum-pudding 
nor mince-pies, that Chaucer never saw a printed 
book, that Queen Elizabeth never heard of tea or 
saw a newspaper, that George I. had no umbrella, 
and that Queen Victoria was the first sovereign of 
our island home who had not to depend on wind 
and weather to leave her kingdom. 

Articles now considered necessities were luxuries 



INTEODUCTORY xv 

to our forefathers, or entirely non-existent. Thus 
they lived without sugar till the thirteenth century, 
without coal till the fourteenth, without butter on 
their bread till the fifteenth, without tobacco and 
potatoes till the sixteenth, without tea, coffee, 
and soap till the seventeenth, without umbrellas, 
lamps, and puddings till the eighteenth, without 
trains, telegrams, gas, matches, and chloroform till 
the nineteenth. 

There was no turning of night into day through 
the long ages of the past, no artificial light other 
than candles and lamps till the eighteenth century. 
Till quite modern times our fathers rose with the 
sun, dined early, danced, played games, and went 
early to bed. Nevertheless, the " good old days " 
had their drawbacks. They were days of rough- 
ness and brutality, of injustice and ignorance, 
when passions ran riot and tempers were uncon- 
trolled ; not till the dawn of mercy, pity, and 
tolerance did civilisation assume any of that 
refinement which is ours to-day. 

The gradual levelling of social distinctions has 
been amply described in these pages, for there is 
no more striking development to-day than the rise 
of the Democracy to power. 

But when all is said and done, when carpets 



xvi SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 

have been substituted for rushes, electric light for 
tallow dips, forks for fingers, railway for coach, 
mercy for brutality — yet behind these external 
changes, transitory by reason of the law of pro- 
gress, lies unchangeable human nature, ever the 
same with its hopes and fears, its capacity for joy 
and sorrow. Across the dim ages move the same 
men and women as to-day ; they are clad in 
different garments, they eat a coarser food, they 
move amid different surroundings; but through 
the " enchanted twilights of the Past " we recog- 
nise our very selves, 



"Till only what is Past and gone doth seem 
To live, and all the Present is a dream." 



CHAPTER I 

THE SPEECHLESS PAST 

" Till dim imagination just possesse 
The half created shadow." 

Shelley. 

INTERESTING as are the glimpses of that pre- 
historic race which in the dim ages of long 
ago roamed over the most accessible parts of the 
land now known as the British Isles, it is unnec- 
essary to do more than sum up slightly the vague 
scraps that form all the knowledge we possess of 
this remote period. 

Through the mysterious dawn of our country's 
history, early man moves fitfully to and fro, and 
it is difficult even dimly to discern his shadow. 
It is only by piecing together the scattered frag- 
ments of existing remains, and comparing them 
with the possessions of uncivilised mankind in other 

1 



2 SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 

parts of the world, that we get a picture — half- 
imaginary, if you like — of the social condition of 
primitive man in this land, which was then a part 
of the European Continent. He has many names. 
He is called Palaeolithic Man, that is. Old Stone 
Man, or the Cave Man. He was short of stature 
and heavy of limb. He made his home in a cave 
where such existed, which afforded him shelter 
from the rain and a refuge from the wild beasts 
that shared the country with him. It has been sug- 
gested that he must have been a good sportsman, 
or these very beasts would have exterminated him 
altogether. His weapons were limited to stone, 
ivory from the tusks of the mammoth, and bone 
from the bison and reindeer, whose flesh formed 
his food. The pre-historic hunt was rather to pro- 
cure the means of existence than for the pleasure 
of killing. With his ponderous stone implement, 
early man slew his beast; with a flint knife, or by 
means of hot pebbles, he cut up the flesh ; he cooked 
it over his fire, kindled by the friction of sticks, 
in a vessel of wood or skin. There was no 
waste, for he scraped the skin inside with a sharp- 
ened flint, made a bone needle, and threading it 
with a reindeer sinew, he stitched for himself a 
garment for the cold weather. Stringing together 



THE SPEECHLESS PAST 3 

the teeth of the animal on sinews, he made neck- 
laces and other barbaric ornaments. 

With the inherent instincts of an artist, he 
scratched a picture of his friend the mammoth on 
his tusk, and the reindeer on his antler, the dis- 
covery of which has shed some dim light on these 
early days. With no definite thought of a here- 
after, he was probably indifferent to the fate of his 
dead. There is a scarcity of human bones belong- 
ing to this age, from which it has been inferred 
that either he had resort to cremation or that he 
presented the dead bodies of his kinsfolk to the 
hyenas who prowled about his cave in search of 
prey. 

An immensity of time passed away. Structural 
changes passed over the land. The valleys uniting 
these islands with Europe became submerged. The 
wild North Sea swept over the dry land, across 
which the " grisly bear and the sabre-toothed tiger 
had walked after the primitive Briton," and the 
British Islands were completely surrounded by 
water. 

Across the stormy seas, in primitive log canoes, 
came another people to possess the land. Neolithic 
Man, that is, the New Stone Man, or, indeed, the 
Iberian, was at once more civilised and interesting 



4 SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 

than his predecessor. He brought over with him 
the animals which are domesticated in England 
to-day — the dog, the sheep, the cow, and the 
pig. Instead of the woolly rhinoceros and the 
curly-tusked mammoth, we find forest and marsh 
alive with wild boars, reindeer, wolves, and wild 
cats. 

The New Stone Man was far more accomplished 
than the Old Stone Man. His weapons, though 
still exclusively of stone, were far more highly fin- 
ished implements wherewith to kill, the fine polish 
and thin cutting edge denoting superior skill and 
intelligence. With these he began to clear the thick 
forest, and in the clearing to make for himself a 
dwelling, which was a sort of artificial cave. He 
dug a pit to a depth of some ten feet below the 
surface, and covered it with a roof of interlaced 
sticks plastered together by clay. He entered it by 
a sort of tunnel sloping down to the floor, which 
also answered the purpose of chimney. 

Near his dwelling he sowed wheat or flax, to be 
utilised for the rough weaving of those early days. 
For in these ancient habitations of Neolithic Man 
have been found stone spinning-whorls, chalk 
weights to stretch the warp, and long combs to 
push the woof; two bits of their dresses have been 



THE SPEECHLESS PAST 5 

preserved near their lake dwellings though the gar- 
ments woven have long since perished. 

A picture of the social condition of the New 
Stone Man has been drawn by an able historian. 
He bids us, in imagination, make our way through 
a track in the dense virgin forest to one of the 
rough clearings. There we may find a cluster of 
these pit houses, recognisable by the thin smoke 
issuing from the entrance. Around are small plots 
of ripening wheat, troops of horned sheep and 
short-horned oxen, and possibly a few fierce dogs, 
acting as guardians of the primitive homestead 
against the attacks of bears, wolves or foxes. 

Outside we can imagine the short, swarthy in- 
habitants slightly dressed in wool or in skins, with 
necklaces and pendants of stone, bone or home- 
made pottery. Some are cutting wood with well- 
sharpened stone axes fixed in wooden handles, some 
sawing it with saws of carefully notched pieces of 
flint ; some are fashioning wooden bows for arrows 
tipped with pointed flint heads, while some are 
scraping skins for clothing or carving harpoons 
out of bone. Some — presumably the women of the 
party — are spinning thread and weaving it with 
rudely-constructed looms. It was a simple pastoral 
existence, with few needs and fewer possessions; 



6 SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 

the horizon of life was distinctly limited. To min- 
ister to the material needs of his nature was the 
main object of Neolithic Man's existence. His 
mind was as the mind of an untaught child, till, as 
the ages rolled onward^ something told him that 
eating and drinking were not the chief ends for 
which he was created. 

He could see silent hills, and the green valleys 
watered by stream and marsh: he knew the daily 
movements of sun, moon, and stars: he could hear 
the rush of many waters, the roar of the wind- 
tossed sea, the rumble of thunder across the heav- 
ens, the fluttering of leaves, the carrolling of birds, 
and the chirping of insects as day passed into night. 
After a lengthened period of simple wonder and 
amazement, questions presented themselves to his 
untutored mind, and a yearning to learn the cause 
of these things took possession of him. Nature 
was great, mighty, beautiful, but she was never 
still. There was movement everywhere; therefore, 
he argued, there must be spirits dwelling in every- 
thing — spirits to move the leaves and roll the thun- 
der across the sky, to urge the rivers into motion, 
and hurry the sun and moon by turns through day 
and night. 

These vague ponderings made him relinquish the 



THE SPEECHLESS PAST 7 

old habit of his predecessors of casting dead bodies 
to the hyenas. The spirits that dwelt in the trees 
and rivers dwelt also in man. When the body 
died, the spirit that had moved it departed else- 
where, possibly into some animal or other body, 
till in time it reached the dwelling-place of all the 
spirits. 

Hence arose the Neolithic system of burial. 
When the men^ women, and children of the home- 
stead died, they were buried in little walled rooms 
made of stone, over which were erected mounds, 
known to-day as " barrows." The skeletons found 
in these primitive graves are often found in a sit- 
ting posture. A woman has been found with her 
baby in her arms in one of these, while in another 
a man and woman, presumably husband and wife, 
sat opposite to one another, their foreheads touch- 
ing and their hands clasped. Food vessels and 
drinking-cups were buried with the dead for their 
use hereafter, and it is probable that slaves and 
animals were slain, in order that their spirits might 
accompany that of the dead man on his last mys- 
terious journey. Time passed, and with time came 
change. 

In the general movement westward of the Aryan 
tribes from Central Asia came the fair-haired Celt, 



8 SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 

first to trade and then to stay. It seems strange 
that the forest-clad island, with its damp, chilly 
climate and gloomy skies, should have proved such 
an irresistible attraction to the strangers from Gaul, 
but so it was. Forthwith he set himself to conquer 
the existing New Stone Man in order to possess 
the land. 

His triumph was due to the fact that he brought 
with him a superior, bronze weapon for killing his 
enemies, for which even the polished and well- 
shaipened stone implement of the New Stone Man 
was no match. 

So the tall, fair, grey-eyed Celt prevailed over 
the short, dark, swarthy Iberian, and the New 
Stone Age gave way to what is known as the 
Bronze Age in the British Isles. 

A new stage in civilisation was now reached. 
For it is obvious that the treasures of the earth 
were closed to those whose only weapons were of 
stone. It was only when the hard, sharp-edged 
metal tool was placed in his hands that man could 
hew his way to the mineral wealth and open up 
new possibilities of civilisation. The new-comers 
had made considerable progress already before ever 
they reached these shores. Amongst other accom- 
plishments, they could plough, they could shear 



THE SPEECHLESS PAST 9 

sheep and weave woollen garments, they reckoned 
their time by months, determined by various phases 
of the moon, and they spoke a distinct language, 
which exists to-day in remote parts of our island 
home. 

They soon opened up trade with Phoenicians and 
Greeks from the south of France, and the first rec- 
ord of commerce, about the fourth century B.C., 
marks an interesting development in the social con- 
dition of our early ancestors. The Greek mathe- 
matician who conducted one of the earliest of these 
expeditions from Marseilles most probably intro- 
duced the first coined money to these islands. And 
one may suppose that the little ships that so 
bravely made their way across the unknown and 
then desolate waters of the English Channel re- 
turned to their moorings with tin from the Cornish 
mines, superseded later by iron ore from the Brit- 
ish hills. 

Attracted probably by this commerce — certainly 
not by climate — tribe after tribe of Celtic origin 
made its way to the British Islands, the land of 
" cloud and rain," until scattered traces alone re- 
mained of the old Iberian, and under the name of 
the ancient Briton, the men of the Bronze Age had 
it all their own way. 



10 SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 

On the very threshold now of authenticated his- 
tory, imagination fades before fact, shadows stand 
forth in the light of day, and pictures of the so- 
cial conditions of the dwellers in this land, the an- 
cient Britons, become more real and more inter- 
esting. 

As it was in tribes and clans they came over, so 
it was in tribes and clans they lived. Groups of 
huts and villages arose, testifying to the new-born 
ideas of defence, not only from wild beasts, but 
from "human foes. 

. The sites of these villages were often chosen in 
open lakes or marshes, in the centre of which an 
island was improvised. The same idea, in later 
days, prompted men to construct moats round their 
castles, only in the one case the water was round 
the island, while in the other the island was con- 
structed in the water. 

The site of the new home being chosen, a raft of 
tree trunks was formed, on the top of which were 
laid layers of earth and stones, until the whole mass 
sank and grounded on the bed of the lake. Then 
upright oak piles were driven close together as park 
palings round the edge of the sunken island, and 
inside the palings were built clusters of wooden 
huts, roofed with wicker-work smeared over 



THE SPEECHLESS PAST 11 

with clay, or, in technical language, " wattle and 
daub." 

Each hut had a door three feet high, which must 
have caused the ancient Briton to stoop badly, for 
he was a taller man than his predecessor, being 
some five feet nine in height. In the centre of each 
hut was a stone hearth for a fire, over which the 
family presumably cooked their food by day, and 
round which they probably slept by night in the 
cold weather. 

Their food was compounded of corn and wild 
fruits, the flesh of wild and domestic animals, hazel 
and beech nuts. They stood in no need of sauces 
or relishes — ^their seasonings were supplied by a 
healthy and vigorous constitution, fresh, sweet 
smelling air, and exemption from the over-anxiety 
of to-day. For drinks they had milk, cider and 
mead — a mixture of wheat and honey — ^the ancestor 
of our modern beer. " This drink," remarks the 
sailor mathematician from Greece, " produced pain 
in the head and injury to the nerves," which re- 
mark needs no comment to-day. 

It is sometimes easier to picture a primitive peo- 
ple by trying to realise what they had not got, 
rather than by what they had. 

Let us then imagine a life with no smoking, no 



12 SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 

wine, no tea, no coffee, no butter, no sugar, no 
potatoes, no eggs, no fowls — food stuffs apt to be 
popularly considered as essential to life. Neverthe- 
less, the ancient Briton was a man of fine build and 
strong physique, ever ready to do and dare. True, 
he was short-lived in comparison with modern man, 
as he died about the age of fifty-five, but he was 
longer-lived than his predecessors, who had died 
for the most part at forty-five: so presumably the 
conditions of life were already improving. 

The ancient Briton wore his hair long and 
shaggy, the women arranging theirs in shocks or 
pyramids held together by metal hairpins twenty 
inches long. 

Though the skins of animals may still have 
clothed a number of the primitive inhabitants of 
these islands, yet the majority probably dressed in 
cloaks of wool or garments of linen. Woollen 
caps, woollen shawls with fringe at the end, and 
woollen gaiters have been found in graves belong- 
ing to this period, suggestive, it has been pointed 
out, of Dr. Jaeger's modern manufacture. Re- 
mains of leather, representing some sort of primi- 
tive boots, have likewise been found, together with 
other interesting relics of the period. Their occu- 
pations were more varied than those of their prede- 



THE SPEECHLESS PAST 13 

cessors. They made a rough sort of badly burnt 
pottery, decorating it skilfully with various pat- 
terns, composed for the most part of dots and 
straight lines arranged in geometrical crosses, net- 
work, or zigzag. Their skill in carpentering, too, 
is somewhat surprising, and their wheels, ladders, 
doors, buckets, and bowls are ornamented with cut 
patterns of great exactitude. 

Their preparations for inter-tribal warfare were 
still distinctly barbaric; the hilts of their huge, 
pointless swords were adorned with the teeth of 
animals; on the axles of their chariot wheels were 
attached scythes to mow down their enemies. 

They faced death fearlessly, and, with the char- 
acteristics of their descendants, never knew when 
they were beaten. Perhaps this courage in the 
presence of danger was due to the fact that to these 
warriors of old death was merely the passing of the 
spirit that had prompted life into another body. 
And the deification of ancestors arose in addition 
to the deification of Nature. Honour to the dead 
was intensified, and to this period possibly belong 
the mysterious and hardly yet explained monu- 
ments of Stonehenge and Avebury. Whether these 
colossal memorials were temples for tombs of great 
men, surrounded as they are by three hundred bar- 



14 SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 

rows in the neighbourhood, they are marvellous in 
the skill of their workmanship, and they testify to 
a past which is still pitifully speechless and yet, 
with all its barbaric attributes, contains the em- 
bryonic characteristics of our modern existence to- 
day. 



CHAPTER II 

Circa B.C. 55 — a.d. 410 » 

A GREAT CIVILISATION 

"And left their usages, their arts and laws 
To disappear by a slow gradual death, 
To dwindle and to perish one by one, 
Starved in these narrow bounds : but not the soul 
Of Liberty." 

Wordsworth. 

WITH the invasion of Julius Caesar and the 
occupation of England by the Romans a 
hundred years later, a very highly developed civili- 
sation was brought to our shores. And though we 
no longer regard the dwellers in this land at that 
period as half-naked savages, painted blue and 
madly hurling immense stones at the orderly 
Roman legions as they endeavoured to step on 
to British soil, yet there is no doubt the new- 
comers were very far in advance of the in- 
habitants of the island they sought to conquer. 

15 



16 ROMAN CONQUEST 

Arrayed in short tunics of cloth or linen, with 
bare heads and legs, armed with broadswords 
and lances, standing in war-chariots drawn by 
well-trained ponies accustomed to the roughest 
country, each tribe under its own chief — these 
ancient Britons gallantly defended their land 
against the foreign foe. But very different were 
the organised legions against which they had to 
fight. Each Roman soldier was armed with a 
well-tempered blade of steel, each head was pro- 
tected by a lofty-crested helmet, while mail 
breastplates, greaves, and shields embossed with 
plates of iron, completed the equipment. Com- 
manded by men chosen for their military skill, 
it is small wonder that they conquered the British 
tribes, even as those very British tribes — the 
Celts — had triumphed over the Iberians of old 
by means of a superior metal weapon. 

The Britons fought with true courage, and for 
the first time in this land's social history we get 
glimpses of individual heroes rejoicing in elaborate 
names, few of which are less than four syllables. 
Stronger than his fellows, Cassivelaunus, King of 
the Catuvelauni, keeps a large tract of country 
free from the Roman, while his descendant 
Cunobelinus — the Cymbeline of Shakspere — 



EAKLY NAMES 17 

defends his stronghold of Camalodunum, on the 
site of our modern Colchester, as some maintain. 
The defence of the old country was carried on 
by his son Caractacus, the stirring account of 
whose defeat and subsequent appearance in 
Rome are well known. Women, too, sprang up 
to defend the land against Roman invaders, and 
amongst them we get a mention of one of the 
first-named Queens in old British history. A 
glimpse of her conduct illumines for a moment 
these barbaric times. 

Boadicea, the widowed Queen of Prasutagus, 
King of the Iceni tribe, inhabiting Norfolk, 
burned with indignation at the insults offered 
to herself and her daughters by the Roman 
governors. Her own fierce courage inspired her 
people, and she proudly led the tribes, over which 
she still held sway, against Colchester, the head- 
quarters of the Romans in the east. Her ranks 
were soon swollen by other discontented Britons, 
until she found herself at the head of something 
like 80,000 native warriors. A vivid picture of 
the Queen before the battle has been handed 
down by a Roman historian, as, standing up in 
her war-chariot, where sat her weeping daughters, 
her bare arms raised on high, her long, yellow 

3 



18 FIRST EECORDED SPEECH 

hair floating over her shoulders, from which hung 
a tunic of many colours, her golden necklace and 
bracelets glistening in the sun, she resolutely 
addressed her faithful troops : 

"Not as a Queen, the descendant of noble 
ancestors, possessed of great riches and wealth, 
but as one of the community, I lead you to 
avenge the loss of our liberty. The Roman 
army now opposed to us will never stand the 
shouts and clamour of so many thousands, much 
less their shock and fury. To-day, we conquer 
or we die. This is the last resource for me — a 
woman. Let the men live — if they please — as 
slaves." 

The angry hosts made their way to Colchester, 
which was, as yet, unwalled, burst in and 
slaughtered the Romans with savage fury, and 
hastened on to further destruction. It was not 
until the Roman Governor himself advanced 
against the British Queen that the massacre was 
stopped, and at the last it is said that some 
80,000 Britons lay dead on the battlefield, 
including women and children. 

The tragic end of Boadicea, by suicide, throws 
a lurid light on her strength of character. Impul- 
sive and fearless, with a passionate love of liberty, 



KOMAN ROADS 19 

we learn that in those days of small opportunities 
there were women of this type in early Britain, a 
type which survived the Roman assimilation as 
well as the Teutonic invasions that swept over 
the country in later days. 

The conquest more or less complete, the 
Romans found it easy to introduce into the 
newly acquired country all that had made life 
comfortable in their far-off Italian homes. 

Their first great work was to convert the old 
British tracks into broad military highways, thus 
enabling their soldiers to march easily from one 
end of the island to another, as well as simplifying 
commercial intercourse. These roads were carried 
over the rivers by an extensive system of bridges 
built of timber on stone piers. Distances were 
made known by means of milestones, which were 
stone pillars on which were engraved the distance 
in numbers, the places between which the road 
extended, the name of the constructor, and the 
Roman Emperor in whose reign the stone was 
erected. At regular intervals of a day's journey 
were posting stations,, where refreshments were 
obtainable. Indeed, the County Councillor of 
to-day might well make a study of the very 
complete system of road communication in- 



20 FORTIFIED TOWNS 

augurated by the Roman of old. The roads 
were the property of the State, which had 
entire control and supplied funds for their con- 
struction and maintenance. Each main line of 
road was under an inspector-in-chief, who held an 
important office, one filled by many a Roman 
princeling of repute. Nevertheless we get 
glimpses of fraudulent contractors and negligent 
magistrates prosecuted for the bad condition of 
the roads, which were finally so well constructed 
that many of them remained in England till the 
sixteenth century. 

It is interesting to note that the country roads 
were under the control of the rural authorities, 
maintained by assessments, and that the city 
streets had to be repaired by the inhabitants, 
each householder being responsible for the portion 
immediately opposite his own house. 

On or near the great main roads which freely 
intersected the island were the famous walled 
towns of the Romans. Boadicea had taught them 
a lesson at Colchester, and henceforth every city 
of repute was strongly walled, however advan- 
tageous its natural position. These walls were 
tremendously strong, for amid their many accom- 
plishments the Romans were excellent masons. 



PUBLIC BATHS 21 

With tiles and bricks and well-cut stone bound 
together with durable mortar, they built, not for a 
day, but for eternity, and many of their weather- 
beaten walls have already stood the storm and 
stress of 1400 years. The towns were approached 
by gateways with rounded arches, inside which 
the streets were determined by the form of the 
Roman camp or of a British town. They had 
their public buildings like a miniature Rome : 
each had its temple, its theatre, its court of justice, 
and its public baths. With regard to the latter 
it may be instructive to remark that when the 
Roman civilisation was swept away in the fifth 
century, it took Englishmen 1400 years to re-learn 
the lesson that it is necessary to provide public 
baths for the inhabitants of our large cities. This, 
initiated in 1846, is but partially fulfilled now. 

The construction of the Roman villa is too well 
known to need repetition here. How badly these 
foreigners from the sunny South felt the damp 
and cold of our island home is revealed by the 
elaborate warming apparatus in their houses as 
well as in their bath-rooms. The floors of their 
largest sitting-rooms were supported on rows of 
short thick pillars. This space was filled with 
heat issuing from a furnace without, which also 



22 WAKMING ROMAN VILLAS 

fed the flue pipes introduced into the walls. Thus 
the houses were well warmed, though no fire- 
place or heating arrangement was visible, and 
it is interesting to note that, for warming the last 
and newest Sanatorium in England, this system 
has been adopted. The floors were elaborately 
pieced together in mosaic. The foundation was 
composed of concrete, made of pounded lime 
and bricks, sometimes nearly a foot thick. The 
mosaic patterns were composed of cubes of 
various colours in stone, terra-cotta or glass. 
Thus the floors were fire-proof, durable, beautiful, 
and easy to clean. 

Not only was there a feeling for warmth and 
cleanliness among the Romans and Romanised 
British, but sanitary arrangements were carefully 
made. There was a regular water supply : 
large leaden mains were laid under the paving 
of the streets, branching ofl" to the houses. 
These led to cisterns, from which descending 
supply pipes were laid on to various parts of 
the house, as in our systems of to-day. Neatly 
finished watercocks and draw-taps facilitated the 
supply, while the turncocks in the mains had 
movable key handles which rivalled those in 
modern use. 



NO MEAT 23 

And the people who lived in these well- 
equipped houses : what of them ? Their dress 
was at once simple and serviceable. They 
rejoiced in the yellow cloth toga of Roman fame, 
a semicircular garment with folds ample enough 
to cover the head in bad weather. Though worn 
in its natural colour for the most part, various 
officials had the toga bleached, while in times of 
mourning it was dyed black. Later the toga gave 
way to the tunic, women wearing theirs long and 
adorned with fringe. But the only part of Roman 
dress that has descended to us entire is the 
leathern shoe or sandal. This was often of superb 
workmanship, rich in ornament, and proportion- 
ately costly to buy. The soles were cut for right 
and left feet, as they are to-day. 

Some maintain that, unlike the Britons, the 
Romans ate little beef or mutton. As a medicine, 
roast beef or beef tea was used, but not as 
food. Poultry, originally brought from Rome, 
fish and game, pork and venison, were the food 
of the wealthy, while the more common food 
consisted of vegetables flavoured with lard or 
bacon. 

The following record of a Roman supper party 
is illuminating. The first course consisted of 



24 EOMAN COOKERY 

sea-hedgehogs, raw oysters, and asparagus ; then 
came a fat fowl, more oysters and shell-fish with 
dates, roebuck, and wild boar. The third course 
was made up of wild boar's head, ducks, a 
compote of river birds, hare, and cakes resembling 
our modern Yorkshire pudding. 

Here is a Roman receipt called "Pig with 
Stuffing":— 

"Clean out interior of pig and fill with the 
following stuffing. Pound an ounce of pepper, 
honey, and wine, make it hot; break a dry 
biscuit into bits and mix. Stir with a twig of 
green laurel and boil until the whole is thickened. 
Fill the pig with this ; skin, stop up with paper, 
and put it into the oven to bake." 

Receipts for boar and pig are numerous, for 
pork was a passion with the Romans. They 
would feed their pigs on figs and cook them with 
fifty different savours, for the Roman " cook was 
a poet." 

Their fancy bread contained oysters, and was 
sold at about three shillings a peck loaf Nor 
must it be forgotten that the Romans introduced 
into this country cherries, peaches, pears, 
mulberries, figs, damsons, medlars, quinces, 
walnuts, and vines. They likewise brought over 



LETTER WRITING 25 

the first fallow deer, pheasants, geese, fowls, and 
rabbits, while there were no limes, planes, syca- 
mores, or sweet chestnuts before the Roman 
occupation. 

They established extensive pottery works in 
various parts of the island ; specially famous 
were those which stretched some twenty miles 
along the banks of the river Medway, where at 
least 2,000 men were employed. They must 
have astonished the ancient Britons by the 
beauty and ingenuity of their work in this as in 
many other branches of industry, and one can 
imagine their surprise at the Roman looking glass 
of polished metal, tooth combs, padlocks, thimbles, 
baby's bottles, glass jugs, &c. 

These civilised peoples taught the ancient 
Briton to write letters on tablets covered with 
wax with pointed bronze pens. The letter 
finished, the tablet was closed, tied with thread, 
and sealed. It was then despatched by hand to 
the person to whom it was addressed. Having 
read the message, he rubbed it out, wrote the 
answer on the same tablet, and returned it. 

But, with all their advanced civilisation, the 
amusements of the Romans were horribly cruel. 
One of their great delights was to set fierce 



26 NEEDS OF THE DEAD 

animals to tear one another to pieces — not only 
bears and bulls, but elephants, tigers, giraffes, and 
even serpents. Three or four hundred bears 
might be killed in a single day. Criminals would 
be thrown to maddened bulls — "butcher'd to 
make a Roman holiday " ; possibly in Britain also. 
As in the case of the Stone Man and the Celt, 
we look into the tombs of the dead to learn the 
manners and customs of the living. The Romans 
dealt with their dead either by cremation or burial 
in wooden, clay, or lead coffins placed in stone 
sarcophagi. The Christian ideal was dawning 
slowly, and the old superstition was still deeply 
rooted in the minds of the people that articles 
of various kinds buried in the tombs would add 
to the comfort of the departed spirits. The dead 
were clothed in full dress with their jewels and 
personal ornaments, while in their mouth was 
placed a coin for the payment of Charon, the 
ferryman of the nether regions. Often wine and 
food were placed on or near the coffin, and the 
idea of action in the future life is manifested by 
the attention paid to the sandals, which were 
invariably placed by the dead body. Pathetic 
enough are the Latin inscriptions on some of the 
little tombs: 



CHILDREN'S TOMBS 27 

"To the gods of the shades. 

To Succia Petronia, who lived 

three years, four months, nine days 

Valerius Peroniulus and Tuictia Sabina, 

to their dearest daughter, made this." 

Or again : 

"To the gods of the shades. 

To Simplicia Florentina 

a most innocent thing 

who lived ten months 

her father of the sixth legion, the Victorious, 

made this." 

The traces of Christianity are of the scantiest 
description. 

Nevertheless, to the Romans we owe the 
organisation of Christianity in our country, for 
they never forgot the distant province they had 
governed for over three hundred years, and when 
the time was ripe, they sent their little band of 
Benedictine monks to teach their brethren beyond 
the seas that Gospel that they themselves had 
learnt to love. 

At last Rome called her legions home to 
defend their own country from the barbarians 
already knocking at her gates. And the Romans 
hurried from their island home in England to 



28 THE KOMANS EMBARK 

obey the call of duty. They left their splendid 
roads and bridges, their walled cities, luxurious 
villas and spacious baths, their extensive mines 
and manufactures, their temples and Christian 
churches, and the little lonely graves of their dead. 

Yet something of despair seized the Romanised 
Britons as the last shiploads of Roman invaders 
waved farewell. They had grown to depend 
entirely on their conquerors for municipal govern- 
ment and defence along the Saxon shore, and 
three centuries of official protection had sapped 
away the. very strength of their manhood and 
the vigour of their independence. 

True, the wealth of the island had grown rapidly 
during the Roman occupation, which had 
secured three centuries of unbroken peace : her 
mineral resources had been explored ; commerce 
had increased everywhere, owing to improved 
communication ; agriculture had been developed 
until, after supplying her own needs, England 
could export corn in considerable quantities to 
other lands ; and cities had sprung up connected 
by an elaborate network of roads. But all these 
developments were necessarily costly, and the 
land was crushed by a heavy system of taxa- 
tion. 



TRACES OF ROMAN CIVILISATION 29 

At the same time, though doubtless Britain 
was a more comfortable place to live in than of 
yore, the old tribal patriotism had vanished 
under the despotism of the Roman government. 
The Britons were not called on to defend their 
land ; thus there was no national organisation, no 
cause to call forth the sacrifice of life, so potent 
a factor in the vigour of a nation. 

Hence a certain dependence and effeminacy 
characterised the people, and no sturdy patriots 
of the Caractacus and Boadicea type are forth- 
coming at this period of the nation's social 
history. 

Most of the advanced Roman civilisation was 
swept away wherever the barbaric Saxon secured 
a footing, but much remains to this day. 

Do not all our months bear Latin names, 
July and August perpetuating the great Julius 
Csesar and Augustus Caesar? Do not our 
pennies bear the stamp of the Roman Britannia ? 
Did not the Roman teach us to put on mourn- 
ing for our dead? They discovered our oyster- 
beds, they constructed our roads, they bridged 
our rivers. To use the words of a modern 
historian : " Rome left few traces on our lan- 
guage, none on our early laws, little on our 



30 WHAT THE ROMANS LEFT US 

blood, but . . . wherever a civilised language is 
spoken, men think in the forms and speak the 
grammar, reason on the principles, and are 
judged and governed according to the standards 
of law and good government, which have de- 
scended to them from Imperial Rome." So that 
to-day we are all, " in the best sense of the word, 
children of the Roman Empire." 



CHAPTER III 

Circa 449—597 

FROM THE SHORES OF THE NORTH SEA 

"The sea is their school of war and the storm their 
friend." 

FASCINATING is the story of the Saxon 
conquest, but perhaps even more fascinating 
is that of the Saxon settlement, with all its 
latent germs of our social life to-day. 

Though for the moment the desertion of 
Britain by the Romans seemed an irretrievable 
calamity, yet, looking back across the ages of 
time, we cannot but note with gratitude the 
influx of those hardy tribes from the shores of 
the wild North Sea, who were destined to be the 
forefathers of a race which plays a part in 
the world to-day wholly disproportionate to the 
size of its home. 

31 



32 PAGAN GIANTS 

The Celt was losing the force of his manhood 
and the strength of his freedom under the some- 
what effeminate influence of the luxury-loving 
Roman, while Jutes, Angles and Saxons on 
the further shores were developing that rough- 
and-ready civilisation which was shortly to 
sweep over our island home. They had come 
to their own from beyond the distant Caucasus. 
Westward they had already fought their way till 
stayed by the waves of the "Western Sea," and 
amid the waste of sand and heather, where no 
man dwelt, they made their homes. 

A fierce, free, fearless folk were these an- 
cestors of ours — broad-shouldered, large-limbed 
giants, with masses of long fair hair and con- 
fident grey-blue eyes — utterly reckless of life 
and limb, pitiless, merciless, and bloodthirsty. 
Worshippers of Woden, whose name we com- 
memorate every Wednesday of our lives, they 
lived on a traditional creed which enacted "eye 
for eye and limb for limb." Each limb had 
its value. An eye or a leg was valued at fifty 
shillings, the loss of a thumb at twenty shillings, 
the jawbone and front tooth at six shillings, 
while the brutality of the age is illustrated in 
the unwritten code that condoned for three 



SAXON CREED 33 

shillings the tearing off a thumb nail or the 
pulling of hair till the bone became visible ! 

This sum, however, was not payable to the 
injured man, but to his family. And it is this 
sense of the value of the family bond that was 
such a marked characteristic of our forefathers, 
and has laid the foundation of so much in our 
social life to-day. 

"So long as The Blood endures, 
I shall know that your good is mine; ye shall feel 
that my strength is yours." 

Each kinsman was kinsman in very deed 
and truth, bound to guard and protect his 
brother from wrong, to suffer for him and 
revenge him. There was no forgiveness in the 
old Saxon creed. 

War was their very existence, plunder and 
slaughter the " very breath of their lives." Splen- 
did sailors, the "blast of the wind and the roar 
of the storm was as music in their ears," and still 
we seem to hear their shouts of glee as they 
breasted the salt waves to greet the undefended 
shores of deserted Britain. True, a stubborn 
defence by unorganised bands of the Celtic 
inhabitants of the island took place, but they 

4 



34t SAXON CONQUEST 

were held together by no bonds of unity, 
bound by no patriotism, moved by no enthusiasm. 
Consequently, with daring spirit and boundless 
brutality the new-comers wrested from them 
portion after portion of the fair country, until 
Britain became Engle-land and the Celts were 
driven westward. Neither were the English 
slow to appreciate the material advantages of 
their newly acquired territory. If they were 
fierce warriors, they were also skilful agricul- 
turists, and the rich water meadows, the flourish- 
ing condition of sheep, goats and cattle, the 
golden cornfields producing more grain than 
the island could consume, appealed to them 
with irresistible force. More so indeed than 
did the thirty walled towns, the elaborately 
warmed villas, the theatres and amphitheatres 
of their predecessors — the Romans. 

Avoiding the towns as much as possible, 
they made their new homes in family clusters, 
surrounded by earthworks for protection. Here 
within these little townships, as they were called, 
dwelt the farmer freemen with their slaves, and 
under their Chief of the Clan. As they had 
crossed the North Sea, and as they had fought 
side by side for the land, so now they made 



SAXON HALL 35 

their homes, each family taking the name of some 
ancestor. Thus the family of the Wellings named 
their new home Wellington, the family of the 
Paddings, Paddington, of the Millings, Millington. 

Their houses varied with the wealth or rank 
of their owners ; all were of wood, for the Angles 
and Saxons had only one word for "to build," 
and that was " getimbrian." The centre of the 
homestead lay in the long public hall, with its 
hearth-fire in the midst — the smoke escaping 
as best it might through holes in the roof. 
This was the common living-room, and not 
infrequently, when night fell and the fire flickered 
low, the common sleeping-room, where weary 
men threw themselves down to sleep on bundles 
of straw. The walls of the hall were hung 
with tapestry worked by the ladies, to keep 
out the draughts, which must have been piercing 
in winter, for the doors were never closed. 

The hospitality of our forefathers was pro- 
verbial. Any stranger presenting himself at 
the door was cordially welcomed; water was 
brought to wash his feet and his hands, and he 
took his place at meat with the family. The 
food, though simple, was abundant. A board 
placed on trestles in the centre served as a 



36 A SAXON MEAL 

table ; it was covered with a linen cloth, while 
among the nobles bowls and dishes were of brass, 
silver, and gold, and drinking-cups were of horn 
and leather. On a raised platform at the head 
of the table sat the mistress of the house — 
the lady, or dispenser of bread — serving out the 
warm and freshly made loaves which formed 
one of the chief articles of diet in Anglo-Saxon 
times. Huge joints of meat were freely de- 
voured, fingers taking the place of forks, while 
the bones were thrown about afterwards. For 
this reason finger bowls and tablecloths were 
introduced, a very necessary addition after a 
meal of this description. Butter, cheese, honey, 
and vegetables having been duly served, the 
board was cleared away, and the women of the 
household bore drinking horns of ale and 
mead to their lords and masters seated on 
benches round the walls. This was the main 
feature of the feast, and lasted late into the after- 
noon or evening. Hard drinkers were our Anglo- 
Saxon ancestors, and fastidious withal as to the 
quality of their drink. The brewers thereof 
were for the most part women, known as ale- 
wives, and punished for brewing bad ale. 

While ale and mead were being consumed with 



SAXON CUSTOMS 37 

fun and laughter, the wandering gleeman sang 
his song of heroic deeds performed by noble 
ancestors, or the harp was taken from the wall 
and handed round from hand to hand, for it was 
an accomplishment in those days that none could 
afford to neglect. 

From this period, too, dates the wassail or 
loving cup, which is passed round to-day at 
large City feasts. When Hengist, the Saxon, 
brought his beautiful daughter Rowena to these 
shores she was introduced to the British King 
Vortigern at a royal banquet. Modestly advanc- 
ing towards the King, according to the custom in 
her own country, she held out a golden cup of 
ale. "Waes hael hlaford Conny" ("Health to 
my lord"), she said in her own tongue. The 
words were interpreted to the British King, and 
the memory of the event has been preserved in 
England by the wassail cup at banquets and 
festivals. The sequel of the story is well known 
to readers of English history, and their marriage 
is one of our earliest romances. 

Marriage in these early days was a simple 
business. Each woman had her value, and the 
man who selected her to be his wife had not 
only to pay to her father a given sum of money, 



38 MAERIAGE CEREMONY 

but he must produce a guarantor for his subse- 
quent behaviour. Here we have the origin of 
the "best man" of to-day. Clasping hands in 
the presence of the family, at the house of either 
bride or bridegroom, constituted the marriage 
service of these pagan days. Nevertheless, we 
get many of the words in our Prayer-book to-day, 
copied, for the most part, from an old Anglo- 
Saxon marriage contract, couched in the language 
of a legal transfer of land : — 

" I take thee, John, to be my wedded husband, 
to have and to hold, from this day forward, for 
better for worse, for richer and poorer, in sickness 
and health, to be bonny and buxom, in bed and 
at board, till death do us part, and thereto plight 
I my troth." 

With the introduction of Christianity later the 
words " If Holy Church do so ordain " were 
added. 

The consumption of the home-made loaf 
(ancestor to the wedding-cake), made by the 
bride to denote proficiency in housekeeping, as 
well as the satin slipper institution, date from 
this period. The origin was practical. Upon 
marriage the authority of the father over his 
daughter was transferred to the husband, a fact 



POSITION OF SAXON WOMEN 39 

which was notified by the bride's shoe being 
delivered to the bridegroom, who touched her 
on the head with it in token of his supremacy 
over her. 

With regard to this supremacy, girls were 
required to wear their hair long and loose 
before marriage, flowing locks being typical of 
their youth and freedom. After marriage the 
hair was cut short, like that of a slave, to show 
that a position of servitude had been accepted. 
As the social position of women advanced they 
rebelled against this idea, and obtained leave to 
bind it in folds and plaits close to the head. 

It is a well-known fact that our forefathers 
systematically beat their wives. "Three blows 
with a broomstick" were considered salutary at 
times to keep them in order ! 

Notwithstanding this apparent subordination, 
women among the Angles and Saxons were 
greatly valued and respected, being encouraged 
to take their place in public affairs with even 
more freedom than is theirs to-day. While 
woman was still the " spinster," spinning the 
thread and weaving the wool of every garment 
worn by the men of the family, yet she was 
allowed to possess and inherit her own lands, 



40 SAXON CHILDREN 

she might sue and be sued in her own name in 
the courts of justice, she shared in all the social 
functions, she was present at the open-air moot, 
or meeting, of freemen to settle the local affairs 
of the little family township ; while in some 
cases she accompanied her husband to the larger 
Witenagemote, or Meeting of the Wise Men, to 
settle the more burning questions of the still 
embryonic nation. 

With regard to children, the Angles and 
Saxons had somewhat Spartan ideas. No 
sooner was a child born than the momentous 
question arose. Was it to be allowed to live? 
It was deemed an act of parental love to put 
to death any child born to a life of misery 
or possible starvation, for famine stalked the 
land not infrequently in these days before the 
reign of Commerce. Or because to rear a 
sickly child might bring disgrace to a family 
of brave men. Children were rigidly brought 
up. Flogging was looked on not only as a 
punishment, but as a system of tuition. If a 
child would not learn, it was beaten ; if it did 
learn, apparently it was beaten also, with a view 
to impressing the fact learnt on its memory. 
Thus a man referred to his childhood in the 



MILITARY DEFENCE 41 

words, "When I was under the rod." A boy 
came of age when he could brandish his father's 
sword and bend his bow, tasks requiring no 
small amount of skill. But this accomplished, 
the young warrior was presented with shield 
and spear, and became a full-fledged citizen. 
Then the real business of his life began, for 
England in those days was a world of strife. 
Every man was a warrior as well as a legis- 
lator; every man bore arms alike as a duty and 
as a privilege. What all had helped to acquire, 
all demanded equally to share — a point of view 
somewhat lost sight of in these latter days. 

All learnt the use of arms, and attended the 
local moot with spear and shield, assenting to 
the suggestions of chief or Ealdorman by the 
noisy clash of the one upon the other. Thus, it 
will readily be seen, the moot was in fact com- 
posed of the local militia, or "fyrd," just as the 
Witenagemote was the gathering of those Ealdor- 
men who had not only presided at the local 
meetings, but had led the men in attendance to 
battle. 

And yet a further strength was added to this 
early military organisation, involving some of 
those sterling qualities which characterised our 



42 SAXON PASTIMES 

Anglo-Saxon forefathers. Around each Ealdor- 
man fought a group of warrior kinsmen, bound 
not only by ties of blood, but by personal devo- 
tion and that "mutual trust of men who had 
been lifelong comrades." To permit the death 
of their chief was the deepest shame of this 
bodyguard ; to sacrifice their lives for him was 
the highest attainable glory. Such a death 
alone won for them the joy of eternal feasting 
in the halls of Walhalla off a boar's head that 
never grew less and from drinking cups of ale 
that never failed. 

It was small wonder, then, that intellectual 
accomplishments should give way before the 
more practical training of wrestling, shooting, 
running, and other sports necessitating bodily 
exertion. 

Hunting was a very favourite as well as a 
necessary pastime. The country was thick in 
forest land, abounding with animals of all 
sorts. There were bears, buffaloes, and wolves 
for the more daring spirits ; harts, hinds, roebuck, 
foxes, and hares for the more timorous. 

When darkness fell on the land they had their 
resources indoors. Games with dice — the ances- 
tors of draughts, backgammon, and chess — were 



SAXON DRESS 43 

freely played ; played often far into the night, 
when the dim hall was lit only by rushes smeared 
in fat, for high stakes involving loss of land and 
even of personal liberty. 

Our forefathers loved practical jokes, many of 
which savour of barbaric cruelty. To tie thorns 
or prickles under the tail of a horse and set 
thereon a timid rider afforded them untold 
mirth, as did also the discomforting process of 
binding a man and chopping off half his long 
hair and beard, the pride and joy of his position 
of a freeman as opposed to that of a slave. The 
life of a wayfarer must have assumed new terrors 
by the knowledge that at any moment a band of 
facetious merrymakers might pounce on him, 
strip him of his clothes, dip him in hot pitch, 
and roll him in feathers! 

The clothes of these days were very simple. 
Long white linen tunics with loose sleeves, 
girdled in at the waist, were worn by all alike, 
from slave to chief Over this men and women 
wore a short cloak, while, in addition to and 
below these garments, the women wore a long 
gown reaching to the feet. No one went bare- 
foot in Anglo-Saxon days; all wore shoes and 
stockings, though the latter more resembled the 



44 SAXON BURIAL 

modern puttees than stockings. Indispensable 
to the woman of the period was the bright- 
coloured hood, couvre-chef^ or kerchief, with 
which she invariably covered her neck and head. 
In bad weather the hood was likewise adopted 
by men, who ordinarily went bare-headed, taking 
great pride in their long hair and beards, which 
they divided in the middle and combed with 
care. 

For ornaments of the living at this early period 
of civilisation we have ever to go to the dead. 
They were buried in graves arranged in rows, 
over which low mounds were raised, as is the 
custom to-day. Here they have been found — 
these tall, big-boned ancestors of ours — lying on 
their backs, sometimes in wooden coffins, more 
often in the bare earth, all in full dress : the men 
with sword and spear, women with ornaments 
and jewels. Still we find the idea that material 
possessions will be available in a future life : that 
warriors would need their carving knives and 
drinking-horns in Walhalla, while those who were 
doomed to the cold shades of Hel might find 
compensation in past earthly splendour. It is 
unnecessary to add that the advent of Christianity 
ended this custom. 



CHARACTER OF SAXONS 45 

Such then, very briefly, were the manners and 
customs of our forefathers who made their homes 
in England during the fifth and sixtli centuries. 
They were blue-eyed, fair-haired giants, sturdy 
pagans, fierce warriors, fearless lovers of sea and 
storm, reckless of life for life's sake, ever ready 
to suffer and if need be to die for one of the Blood. 
Brave, valorous, energetic, cheerful, if devoid of 
mercy and pity, they have bequeathed that force 
of character and "grit" to their successors — 
qualities which have carried England's sons 
successfully through unequal contest and incon- 
ceivable hardship, enabling them to ride fearlessly 
through surf and storm, and with dogged perse- 
verance to build up new homes in distant lands, 
carving out the destiny 6f the British Empire, 
even as their forefathers carved out the destiny 
of England. 

From the shores of the North Sea came our 
ideas of freedom, our right of free meeting, of 
free speech, free thought, free work. It is with 
respect akin to reverence that we look back across 
the stretch of over a thousand years to see in 
the Meeting of the Wise Men the germ of our 
Parliament to-day. On the other hand, it is not 
without anguish that we realise how completely 



46 COLONIAL INSTINCTS 

to-day we have lost sight of that principle grasped 
so firmly by the Angles and Saxons in their 
military organisation, a principle which made 
home defence not only the duty, but the privilege 
of every free-born man. 

They have given us our language, they have 
given us our literature, they have bequeathed to 
us that invaluable legacy, not only of family life 
but of colonial instinct, in which lies the germ 
of that larger Imperialism which Englishmen of 
to-day are called to share with their kindred 
beyond the seas. 

" Truly ye come of The Blood ; slower to bless than 

to ban ; 
Little used to lie down at the bidding of any man. 
Flesh of the flesh that I bred, bone of the bone that 

I bare; 
Stark as your sons shall be — stern as your fathers 

were." 



CHAPTER IV 

Circa 597 — 1066 

OUR GREAT INHERITANCE 

" Post Tenebras Lux." 

MIGHTY and momentous were the changes 
that now swept over the lives of our fore- 
fathers, still torn with those tribal controversies 
which are inevitable in any great settlement of 
people in a new-found land. But great as was 
the revolution which changed the tribal chief into 
the national king and developed the germ of 
feudalism by turning the freeman into a serf, 
yet still greater and more far-reaching was that 
moral revolution which was effected by the 
triumph of Christianity over the fierce worshippers 
of Woden. This is no place to retell the charm- 
ing story of the little band of Benedictine monks 
who so successfully organised that Christianity 
in England which had already taken root among 



48 CELTIC CHEISTIANITY 

the Celts. The strenuous opposition with which 
the Saxons greeted the new faith is compre- 
hensible, when we consider their point of view. 
Not only was it the religion of their foes, the Celts, 
but it taught men to forgive injuries, which seemed 
to the stout pagan warriors a religion only fit 
for cowards, while a faith that held the highest 
life to be that of the cloistered monk was im- 
possible to one whose only hope of eternity lay 
in a glorious death by battle. 

But the time was ripening for a fuller conception 
of the responsibilities of life, when the mere 
gratification of passion and greed as well as the 
very material future offered by the Northern 
mythology was becoming totally inadequate. 

The dawning change is so beautifully illustrated 
by the world-worn parable uttered by an old 
pagan chieftain in the North of England that we 
venture to repeat it, for the speaker voiced the 
feelings of his brethren when he exclaimed : " O 
King, often in winter when men are sitting at 
meat in your hall and the warm fire is lighted on 
your hearth, while the rain storm beats without, 
a sparrow flieth in at the door, tarries for a 
moment in the light and heat of the fire, and then 
goeth out by another door into the wintry darkness 



CHRISTIANITY 49 

whence it came. So tarries for a moment the 
life of man in this world ; what has gone before 
and what will come after, none can say. If this 
new teaching can tell us aught of this, let us 
follow it." 

The answer of Paulinus, the Roman teacher, 
must have been reassuring, for the pagan chief- 
tain sprang on his horse, rode straight to the 
temple of his gods, and hurled a spear through 
the idols worshipped by his ancestors. 

Slowly and painfully, through toil and tribu- 
lation, the persistent teachers made their way 
through the length and breadth of the land, 
followed closely in thought and prayer by Pope 
Gregory in distant Rome, till Christianity finally 
triumphed over heathendom. The liberal way 
in which the changes were effected is evident 
to-day. Thus, the heathen festival hitherto 
dedicated to Eostra, the goddess of the spring, 
became the Christian festival of the Resurrection, 
while the great Yuletide feast held in the winter 
solstice became our Christmas Day. 

Little thick-walled churches, touching in their 
extreme simplicity, arose from out the townships 
scattered through the land. For the first time 
Pater Noster and Creed, Te Deum and Magnificat 

5 



50 EARLY CHURCH SERVICES 

were sung by English lips from English hearts, 
while the now familiar church bell called all 
alike to prayer across marshy meadow and 
lonely moor. 

Accustomed to music and singing, our ancestors 
seem to have joined somewhat too eagerly in 
the solemn Latin chanting of the priests, for we 
find a law ordering those who sang out of time 
or tune to be turned out of church. Possibly 
the uniformity secured in Church music by the 
introduction of Gregorian chants in the eighth 
century affected the Anglo-Saxon enthusiast. 
A difference of opinion also took place between 
priest and people owing to the determination 
of the latter to bring dogs, hawks, and pigs to 
church with them. 

Not only in church, but by moor and river, 
on the hillside and in the valley, the new 
faith was diligently preached to the men of 
England. While the new Walhalla was depicted 
in glowing terms as a place where there would 
be " peace without sorrow, light without dark- 
ness and joys without end," the alternative was 
relentlessly painted for those who fell short 
in obeying the Divine call. "Gold and silver 
cannot save us from those grim and cruel 



CHANGES 51 

torments," cried the preacher of a thousand 
years ago to a congregation of EngHshmen, 
" from those flames that will never be extin- 
guished, from those serpents that never die. 
There they are whetting their bloody teeth to 
wound and tear our bodies without mercy ; there, 
beaten and bound, the afflicted soul will hang 
over hot flames, till thrown into the blackest 
place below." 

Ecclesiastical organisation immediately followed 
the establishment of the Church in England, and 
a new social order arose. Bishops, priests, clergy, 
monks, forming a distinct class, required new 
legislation. By various stages the old township 
passed into the parish, with the church as the 
centre of village life, as it practically is in 
country districts to-day. 

But the change that came over the individual 
was yet more startling. The new faith demanded 
a radical change of life. It forced on the 
Englishman not only new laws, new manners, 
new customs, but an altogether new conception 
of life and duty. There was no respite. The 
change must begin with babyhood and last to 
the grave. No infanticide was permitted, but 
the rites of baptism were ordained to be accom- 



52 NAMING OF CHILDEEN 

pHshed within thirty days of birth. Godparents 
appear for the first time in England, with more 
elaborate duties than they are called on to 
perform to-day. A more systematic naming 
of children now came into existence, their names 
for the most part denoting some personal charac- 
teristic. Thus we have Arnold (eagle strength), 
Alfred (noble peace), Godwine (friend of God), 
while among girls there is Edith (happy gift), 
Ellen (the excellent), and so forth. Of surnames 
there were none as yet, though to avoid confusion 
we hear of Ethelred the Unready, Edmund Iron- 
side, &c. But these, it would seem, ranked only 
as nicknames, which our ancestors loved. Thus 
we get a glimpse of Tata (the lively one), Enede 
(the duck), and Elfgifu (the gift of the fairies). 
Marriage now became a religious ceremony, 
performed at the church door and sanctioned 
by the blessing of the priest, while cremation in 
any form was forbidden, and burial took place 
in consecrated ground. Men's eyes were opened 
for the first time to the evils of slavery. Though 
there were different degrees at this time, yet all 
slaves alike were the property of a master, against 
whose cruelty there was no redress, neither had 
they any kinsmen to avenge their wrongs. They 



PENANCE 53 

were bought and sold with the land as if they 
had been sheep or cattle. Now it was ordained 
that they, with the rest of humanity, should 
rest on Sundays and feast days, and further, that 
their lives should be protected, in so much as a 
man who slew his slave was to do penance for 
two years, and the woman who, in a rage, beat 
her slave to death should do penance for seven 
years. 

These penances, or fasts, played a very large 
part in the social life of this period. They must 
have been a very real trial to the Anglo-Saxon 
community, whose old ideal of material enjoy- 
ment can hardly have passed entirely. Severe 
indeed sounds the penance ordered to such as 
these. Each clause seems intended to mortify 
to the full the peculiar vanities of these men 
of old. To expiate sin, they must lay aside 
all weapons and walk bare-foot, nor must they 
take shelter at nightfall. They must fast and 
watch and pray day and night, weary though 
they be. They must take no warm bath, cut 
no hair or nails, touch no flesh, drink no ale or 
mead, enter no church, but just grieve continually 
for sin. 

The possibility of redeeming these penances 



54 CAPITAL SINS 

was one of the first abuses that shadowed the 
purity of the movement. By building a church 
or bridging a river, by helping the widow or 
fatherless or freeing a slave, wealthy men could 
redeem their punishments. 

It is illuminating to look at the capital sins 
that demanded these fasts in greater or less 
degree. They were pride, vainglory, envy, 
anger, despondency, avarice, greediness and 
luxury. Perhaps the quaintest is the fifth on 
the list, by which a man who permitted his 
want of liveliness to damp the cheerfulness of 
another was ordered to fast for a day on bread 
and water, though, be it noted, even this small 
penance was redeemable by the payment of a 
silver penny or the hurried repetition of many 
psalms ! 

But perhaps one of the strangest phases that 
passed over the social life of the English people 
at this time was the renunciation of the world 
for monastic life as an expression of the highest 
Christian obedience, a phase so important in its 
results that it requires some attention. Long 
ago the Celtic population had realised the value 
of the monastery. On storm-beaten shores and 
wind-swept islands little settlements had arisen, 



MONASTIC LIFE 55 

in which many a devoted monk had spent his 
self-denying life of prayer and meditation. But 
it was not till the Benedictine monks had won 
over the main body of English by their example 
of high living, as much as by their teaching, 
that monastic life became at all universal in 
England. 

To the monks of early England we owe all 
our most precious treasures in literature as well 
as in art. Can our country ever forget the old 
monk of Jarrow, the father of English learning, 
and the ideal of the divinity of work which he 
put before his people ? Who but the monks 
translated the Latin prayers into Saxon and 
illuminated the Saxon Gospels, adorning the 
margins with virgins and apostles in Anglo- 
Saxon dress playing on Anglo-Saxon instru- 
ments ? They were our keenest agriculturists, 
our most skilful fishermen, our best informed 
gardeners, our earliest doctors. They reclaimed 
the waste land, they cut the virgin forests : no 
labour was too hard, no toil too rough for these 
servants of God. The monastery was not only a 
school of learning : it was at once a shelter for 
the destitute and a refuge for the sick, from 
whose hospitable doors no stranger was ever 



56 MEDICAL PRESCRIPTIONS 

turned away. The monks were the only doctors 
in the land, but unhappily their knowledge was 
not equal to their enthusiasm. Hitherto the 
people had trusted to charms and incantations, 
magic and witchcraft, to cure them of their ills. 
A strange mingling of monkish knowledge and 
superstition now took place. Here is an early 
prescription for the cure of consumption : — " Take 
thrift-grass, betony, penny-grass, fane, fennel, 
Christmas wort and borage, and make them into 
a potion with clear ale. Sing seven Masses over 
the plants daily, add holy water, and drink the 
draught out of the church bell, while the priest 
sings : * Domini sancti Pater omnipotens.' " 

Bleeding was the favourite remedy for most 
disorders, but generally so clumsily performed as 
to be more dangerous than the disease itself. 
Its efficacy was supposed to depend on the day 
of the month on which it was performed, and 
was prohibited "when the light of the moon 
and the tide of the ocean were increasing." 

Such very briefly was the state of things in 
England, when once again — so strangely does 
history repeat itself— a pagan population of sea- 
loving men poured themselves over our islands 
from beyond the wild North Sea. From Scandi- 



COMING OF THE DANES 57 

navia and Iceland and the Baltic shores they came, 
and, emerging from a background of wild legend 
and grim saga, we recognise their kinship with 
the Angles and Saxons. Call them Vikings or 
Northmen, Norsemen or Danes, they have 
practically the same manners and customs, the 
same language and social order, the same gods, 
the same Walhalla and Hel, as those tribes which 
had peopled the island some three hundred years 
before them. Perhaps their strenuous struggle 
for bare existence and the uncompromising climate 
of their northern homes made them appear even 
more fierce, more sturdy, and more relentless 
than their predecessors in the land. Through 
the long dim ages of a thousand years we 
see again the famous black raven ensigns flying 
from their long narrow galleys, their weather- 
beaten faces of stern determination as they catch 
sight of the shores of England ; again we hear 
snatches of their native sagas and their shouts of 
victory as they return successful from their wild 
plunder parties, leaving devastated lands and 
blackened ruins behind them, 

" Let all folk do general penance," cried the 
distracted priests, "for three days on bread and 
water ; let every man come barefoot to church 



58 DANISH WARFARE 

without ornament, and at eventide let all the 
assembly on bended knees before God's altar 
sing the third Psalm, till the Almighty pity us and 
grant us to overcome our enemy. God help us." 
But in their enthusiasm the Christian teachers 
had implored the English to abstain from that 
ceaseless warfare that had characterised them of 
old, till they had lost much of their skill. In 
addition to this, though alarm-fires blazed from 
every hill to summon the village fyrd to war, yet 
the freemen of England were now agriculturists 
and not warriors, and they regretfully passed 
from their newly turned furrows to grasp the 
unfamiliar spear and shield as they hastened — 
an undisciplined force — to meet the foe. 

Armed from head to foot were the Danes, every 
man of them a well-drilled soldier, a fierce 
fighter, and thirsting for the blood of his enemy. 
Merciless but well ordered were their attacks, 
aimed more especially against the wealthy 
monasteries of the land. Priests were slain as 
they knelt at prayer, monks and nuns were 
pitilessly slaughtered, children were torn from 
their mothers to be tortured and killed. Never 
were the Danes more elated than when they were 
sacking a rich religious house or burning a little 



PAGANS VERSUS CHRISTIANS 59 

church. At last England lay disheartened, 
dreary, devastated, and the Danes triumphantly 
possessed themselves of their new homes. Then, 
as the clash of battle died away, once more a 
new country arose on the blackened ruins of the 
past. Though the outer semblances of Christianity 
had been swept away, the new faith was strong 
enough to produce martyrs, such as St. Edmund, 
as well as to hold the new-comers within its 
almighty grip. When the storm clouds had 
been dispelled, behold "England was England 
still ; the conquerors sank quietly into the mass of 
those around them, and Woden yielded without 
a struggle to Christ." 

New churches arose, important monasteries 
were founded, a reconstruction of the army took 
place, a new impulse was given to learning ; but 
what transcends all else in the material impor- 
tance of the moment was the inauguration of 
the British navy. Whether that love of the sea 
has come to Englishmen through Saxon or Dane 
is ever a matter of mild dispute. Most of the 
effects of the Danish settlement in England have 
been merely the accentuation of those already 
existing characteristics bequeathed by their pre- 
decessors. If family life had been cherished by 



60 TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY 

the Anglo-Saxon people, it was yet more closely 
united by bonds of blood among the Danes ; if 
freedom had been the watchword of the first 
comers, intensely free was the existence of the 
liberty loving Scandinavian ; if devotion to Woden 
insisted on human sacrifice under the old riginie^ 
yet more persistently bloodthirsty were the pagan 
hordes of the ninth century. 

But the inhuman and pitiless brutality of the 
age was now illumined for ever by the radiance 
of that light shed over England by her newly 
found Christianity, under whose startling regime 
Vengeance gave way to Forgiveness, Cruelty to 
Mercy, Pride to Humility, and the love of Family 
life to the larger Brotherhood which the dust 
of ages has proved powerless to dim, and the 
centuries, as they roll onward, have strengthened 
with indestructible unity. 



CHAPTER V 

Circa 1066 — 1204 

" SAXON AND NORMAN AND DANE ARE WE " 

" I looked : aside the dust-cloud rolled, 
The Waster seemed the Builder too; 
Upspringing from the ruined Old 

I saw the New." 

Whittier. 

WHILE the Danes were settling themselves 
into their new English homes, plundering 
parties of Viking pirates were wresting from France 
her sea-coast territory in the north-east, known to 
history as the Northman's Land or Normandy. 

The same power of assimilation that had 
enabled the Danes to merge themselves in the 
English now characterised the Northmen in 
France. Like their brethren across the English 
Channel, they became Christian, they learnt to 
speak in the language of their adopted country, 

61 



62 NOEMAN CONQUEST 

they wore French dress, they absorbed French 
manners. From sea-faring men they became 
famous equestrians, and grew to be some of the 
foremost fighters in Europe. 

Years passed by, accentuating on either side 
the sea this process of absorption, until in 1066 
the Northmen of France stood face to face with 
the Northmen of England on English soil. 

Every detail of the Battle of Hastings is known 
to lovers of history. Shoulder to shoulder, shield 
to shield, on the heights above Senlac in the 
grey October dawn stood the English, battle-axes 
in hand, under their leader Harold, the fair- 
haired Saxon. Arrayed against them was the 
Norman force, fully armed, and magnificently dis- 
ciplined. There were archers and lancers backed 
by horsemen, and all under the Duke William, 
a very Viking chieftain himself, with his gigantic 
height, his fierce brows, his reckless bearing — 
Norman in his daring, Norman in his very 
pitilessness. 

The conquest practically complete, the newly 
won land was distributed among the conquerors. 
^Scattered over the country of the vanquished, the 
Normans kept the same order that had character- 
ised them on the transports at sea as in the battle 



FEUDAL SYSTEM 63 

itself, an order which united all in a great chain 
of duty. As the simple man-at-arms owed faith 
and service to his captain, so the knight owed 
his service to his military superior the baron, 
while in his turn the baron served his King. 
Thus, then, the Norman feudal army settled on 
the land amidst a people already acquainted with 
the feudal system. But the chances of war had 
carried men rapidly from the lowest to the highest 
grade of society. The foot-soldier with black 
bow and arrow appeared after the Conquest as 
a fully armed knight mounted on horseback, 
while many a poor Norman knight now com- 
manded a company, whose rallying cry was his 
own name. Herdsmen and weavers, butchers 
and cooks, with obscure names in France, became 
illustrious barons on this side the water ! 

The possession of wealth and land now 
became the basis of society. The Anglo-Saxon 
freeman vanished under a system by which every 
landholder was made to depend on another, whom 
he was bound to serve, not as his chosen patron, 
not, as of old, by reason of the love he bore him 
as kinsman or friend, but as owner of the lands 
he cultivated, the leader he was obliged to follow 
into battle. Homage to his landlord — the faithful 



64: UNITY OF ENGLAND 

promise on bended knee to be " his man for ever," 
sealed by a warm grip of the hand — ^was the rent 
he paid for the ground. 

In the great Domesday Book, compiled by the 
Conqueror, every field and farm in England are 
faithfully recorded, every mill and fish-pond, every 
wood and bit of forest land, every pig and cow 
are entered — and taxed. 

And so the famous day was ushered in when, 
on the hot plains of Salisbury, William the Con- 
queror gathered together the whole body of Eng- 
lish land-owners, 60,000 men in all — Saxon, Dane 
and Norman — great and small from every part 
of the island. There each man knelt and swore 
to be the King's man, faithful to him above all 
others. Men have seen in this great Assembly 
the foreshadowing of our Lords and Commons 
in the Parliament of to-day. Be this as it may, 
it was without doubt the foreshadowing of that 
great national unity after which England had 
so long struggled in vain. At this Council (1086), 
England became for ever a kingdom one and 
indivisible, "which since that day no man has 
dreamed of parting asunder" — 

"Strong with a strength that no fate might dissever, 
One with a oneness no force could divide," 



NORMAN HOMES 65 

To guard against any attempted rising on the 
part of the conquered, castles were built in every 
position of importance, and these were the homes 
of the Norman barons. Familiar enough are the 
remains of these old Norman keeps to-day — 
familiar the thick massive walls, standing four 
square on rising ground, surrounded by river or 
moat, and entered by the solid and inhospitable 
gateway. Familiar are the towers and battlements 
frowning defiance over the surrounding country, 
their narrow slits of windows suggestive of 
draughts and sunlessness within. Inside is the 
square courtyard, grass growing unheeded on the 
spot where once clanked hosts of armed men. 
We see again the long hall, or salle, as the new- 
comers renamed it, at once dining-room and 
justice hall, serving as of old for sleeping accom- 
modation for retainers and dogs, when the long 
day was done and the baronial family had 
ascended the outside staircase which led to their 
comfortless bedroom. For one bedroom in those 
days did duty for the whole family. The lord 
and his lady had a roof and hangings to their bed, 
while the rest of the family occupied small beds 
ranged round the room. 

Quilts, made of feathers, seem to have taken the 



66 NORMAN MEALS 

place of the modern mattress ; then came linen 
sheets and cloth coverlets made of cat's hair, 
beaver, badger or martin. On one side of the 
bedroom stood a perch for the falcons, on the 
other a similar arrangement for hanging articles 
of dress. The whole scheme sounds somewhat 
insanitary to modern ideas. 

Their day was divided as follows : 

*' Lever a cinque, diner a neuf, 
Souper a cinque, coucher a neuf, 
Fait vivre d'ans nonante et neuf.'* 

The meals themselves differed little from those 
under the old regime. Close attention was paid 
to cooking, and we are told that William the 
Conqueror brought over his whole kitchen estab- 
lishment to ensure good dinners on the English 
shores. As of old, a boar's head was considered 
among the best of dishes, and it was borne into 
the hall preceded by musicians sounding trumpets. 

Here is one of the new King's menus : — 

1. Boar's head with its tusks in its snout, garnished with 
flowers. 

2. Venison, cranes, peacocks, swans, wild geese, kids, 
pigs and hens. 

3. Spiced and seasoned meats, with wine, red and white. 

4. Pheasants, woodcock, partridge, larks, plovers, brawn. 

5. White powder and large sweetmeats. 



NORMAN DRESS 67 

The peacock was a favourite dish ; so were crane 
and porpoise. Spiced wines and cordials were 
drunk freely by the Normans, who were naturally 
a more temperate people than the Saxons, but 
with the rapid assimilation of the two races this 
restraint soon disappeared. So fast indeed did 
Norman and Saxon blend, that in dress and 
language they soon became identical. The tunic, 
cloak and leg bandages were still worn ; the 
women's gown became the " robe," her headgear 
the couvre-chef or kerchief The women of the 
period wore their hair in long plaits, sometimes 
reaching to the feet, one on either side. So much 
indeed did the Normans admire the long flowing 
hair of the Saxons, that they imitated them by 
allowing their closely cropped hair to grow im- 
moderately long. This fashion was denounced 
strongly by the clergy as effeminate, and it is 
recorded that on Easter Day, 1105, the priest, 
after inveighing against it, coolly drew a huge pair 
of scissors from his pocket and went from seat to 
seat mercilessly cropping the whole congregation, 
from the King downwards ! 

The clergy, after the Conquest, had much to 
contend with. The Church was in a deplorable 
condition. The Saxon clergy had grown illiterate 



68 THE NORMAN CHURCH 

and ignorant ; the discipline of the monastic houses 
was lax ; monks had cast aside their habit to enter 
into the sports and secular life of the people. 
Inasmuch as the Norman Conquest bore the 
character of a religious mission, and a banner 
blessed by the Pope had waved over the victorious 
Normans at Senlac, it is natural to find great 
changes taking place in the Church. An age of 
vigorous growth was now ushered in, an age of 
" great men, of grand ideals and noble ventures." 
The substitution of Norman ecclesiastics for 
Saxon was at once begun, and such names as 
those of Lanfranc, Anselm, and Becket speak to 
us of reform within and without. Scholars, states- 
men, enthusiasts — each had his message to an age 
of violence and turbulence. Separate legislation 
for matters spiritual and temporal, the revival of 
learning among the clergy, together with a stricter 
celibacy and the closer connection of the Norman 
Church in England with the great centre of 
civilisation in Rome — these were among the 
important reforms of the thirteenth century. 

The Norman prelates brought into England a 
passion for building. Abbey churches, minsters, 
and cathedrals began to arise in every diocese. 
The sees of bishops were transferred from villages 



EARLY ORGANS 69 

to popular towns ; thus the Bishop of Thetford 
migrated to Norwich, and Dorchester to Lincoln. 
To-day we love and reverence the simplicity and 
strength of all that remains to us of early Norman 
architecture. Its chief characteristics are well- 
known — the low round arch, the stupendous 
columns, and the stern style of decoration, good 
examples of which may be seen still at Durham, 
Canterbury, and Peterborough. Though the secret 
of mortar-making had not gone with the Romans, 
yet much early Norman work has perished. The 
tower of Winchester Cathedral, built in 1093, fell 
fourteen years later, and though at the time the 
catastrophe was attributed to Divine displeasure, it 
was undoubtedly due to bad mortar ! Within the 
great minsters some few organs were now built 
for Church music. There was a famous one at 
Winchester with 400 pipes and twenty-six bellows, 
worked by seventy strong men, "covered with 
perspiration." Two monks played on two sets of 
keys simultaneously, with the somewhat natural 
result that an overwhelming roar was heard all 
over the city. 

In connection with the cathedral was the mon- 
astery. As in the old days, those who wished to 
live the highest Christian life took refuge in 



70 NORMAN MONASTERIES 

monastic discipline and rule. The paths of life 
were few and sharply defined. All men were 
warriors ; the warriors of God must be monks. As 
heretofore, monasteries were the centres of learning : 
here Norman and Saxon children alike learnt to 
read and to write and to sing ; here books were 
copied and illuminated and chronicles kept — 
imperfect and untrustworthy, but beyond all 
words precious. Here, too, were the hospitals, 
where the sick poor were provided with food and 
clothing ; here were the wooden houses for those 
stricken with that scourge of the Middle Ages, 
leprosy. 

It is this spirit or consciousness of sacrifice 
made ungrudgingly for the sick and suffering that 
gave rise to the spirit of Chivalry, which was such 
a characteristic of this age. For it is to the new 
life breathed into Christianity by direct contact 
with Europe after the Conquest that we owe the 
spirit of knighthood, suggestive of a new ideal and 
more generous impulses than any hitherto known 
in this country. Knighthood in the Middle Ages 
was no lightly earned title, as it is to-day. The 
ceremonies then were entirely of a religious 
character. After bathing, typical of baptism, 
the candidate for knighthood was clothed in a 



KNIGHTHOOD 71 

white tunic, symbol of purity ; then a red robe, 
symbolical of the blood he might be called upon 
to shed in the defence of the oppressed ; over which 
garments was placed a black tight gown, repre- 
senting the mystery of death to be solved here- 
after. Left alone for twenty-four hours to fast and 
pray, the young man then made his confession, 
received the sacrament, attended Mass, and listened 
to an address on his new life and duties. This 
over, a sword was hung round his neck ; he was 
dressed in new garments, spurs, armour, a coat of 
mail, cuirass, gauntlets were presented, and he 
kneeled before his lord, who pronounced over 
him : " In the name of God, of St. Michael and 
St. George, I make thee knight. Be valiant, 
fearless, and loyal." 

These words were accompanied by three taps on 
the shoulder with a sword, and the young man 
rose a knight, member of the great Christian 
brotherhood of chivalry, one of 

"A glorious company, the flower of men, 
To serve as model for the mighty world.'* 

The whole spirit of knighthood lifts us into another 
atmosphere, and it seems strange to mark the 
co-existing condition of brutality, murder, highway 



72 FUSION OF RAGES 

robbery and cruelty that characterises the same 
age. The Crusading fever is but the result of the 
new-born desire to minister to those in need and 
to relieve the oppressed. 

By the year 1204, Saxon, Dane, and Norman 
were practically one people. " Sons of one 
mother," they soon learnt to speak the same 
language, to obey the same King, and to worship 
the same God. The Norman Conquerors were 
gradually lost in the great mass of the English 
people, but in the process they left their indelible 
mark, and England is the richer for their coming. 
The brighter, loftier, and more enthusiastic 
Norman temper mingled happily with the stolid, 
resolute nature of the Anglo-Saxon. Norman 
severity was necessary to strengthen Anglo-Saxon 
patriotism ; the Norman genius for order and 
organisation was able to define and concentrate 
existing Anglo-Saxon institutions. The Normans 
did not sweep and destroy, they strengthened and 
added. Perhaps our language illustrates this rich 
addition best. Such words as sceptre, royalty, 
homage, duke, palace, castle, were used for the 
first time. Synonyms exist, the one homely Anglo- 
Saxon, the other ornate Norman, as " heavy " and 
** ponderous," " earthly " and " terrestial," " shin- 



ENGLISHMEN 73 

ing" and "radiant," while even to-day our 
language bears traces of the Conquest, and the 
very words separate master from servant. Thus, 
in the fields animals were called sheep, oxen, and 
calves, fed by poor Englishmen ; at table they 
became mutton, beef, and veal, eaten by the 
Normans. Both peoples had to pass through a 
fiery ordeal, but there rose as from a furnace a 
new product — the English national character ; and 
to its fusion of Norman fire with Saxon earnest- 
ness we owe the noblest scenes in our "rough 
island story." It is the " Norman graft upon the 
sturdy Saxon tree" that has made the English 
people great, and produced the scholars, soldiers 
and sailors that are the pride of her history. It is 
likewise this blend of Norman, Saxon, and Dane, 
this single race of Englishmen, that has built up 
the young nation across the restless Atlantic. Our 
kin are their kin, our forefathers are their fore- 
fathers, while we are bound together not only in 
blood and in speech, but by a rich inheritance of 
noble achievement and glorious association. 



CHAPTER VI 

Circa 1204 — 1250 

AN AGE OF PROMISE 

"To none will we sell or deny or delay right or justice.'' 

Magna Charta. 

EMERGING from the dark days of 
turbulence after the Norman Conquest, 
when the Englishman's castle was in very deed 
and truth his home, we turn to the thirteenth 
century to find considerable development in the 
social life of our forefathers. The days of warfare 
past, the English home no longer required the 
strong defensive construction of the castle, with 
its frowning battlements and towers. Smaller 
dwellings with less gloomy surroundings now 
succeeded the fortress home, and the English 
manor-house sprang into existence. The Norman 
hall still played a large part in its construction. 

Though no longer built over dark dungeons for 

75 



76 MANOR HOUSES 

the imprisonment of human foes, it was, never- 
theless, built over strongly vaulted cellars. It 
was dark and it was draughty. True, the long 
narrow windows of the castle had been enlarged, 
and wooden shutters constructed to cover them, 
but glass was still too dear for anything but 
Royal palaces. It cost six shillings a foot, and it 
was risky work carting it over the rough roads 
of this period. Hence we get a Royal command 
in 1238 to place a window of white glass in 
the Queen's bedroom at Winchester, " so that 
the chamber be not so windy as it used to be," 
but the houses even of the rich barons were 
exposed to all the winds of heaven. 

Tapestry covered the walls as of old, worked 
with patience and ability by the English ladies, 
who had plenty of time on their hands — plenty 
of imagination and sentiment too, to cover their 
walls with inspiring representations of noble 
deeds and knightly heroism. There were few 
carpets as yet, and the floors were strewn with 
rushes, which were not changed so often as might 
have been wished. One vast improvement took 
place. The piled up fire in the middle of the 
hall gave way to a regular fire-place built against 
the side of the room, with a canopy constructed 



DAYS OF GLUTTONY 77 

over it to draw away the smoke, which was led 
to escape through a hole in the wall. Chimneys 
were rare in the halls of the Middle Ages, which 
makes the law prohibiting the use of coal quite 
intelligible. Next to the hall, and hardly second 
in importance, was the kitchen, for these were 
days of immoderate use of food and drink. 
Indeed, the splendour of the baronial dinners is 
a matter of history. Minstrels and troubadours 
loved to dwell on the magnificence of these 
"domestic pageants," where the gross display of 
food impressed the guests with the wealth of 
their host. 

Ten a.m. was the dinner hour, somewhat akin 
to the modern breakfast hour in the houses of 
those who have no need to work. The tables 
literally glittered with gold and silver, for the 
accumulation of household plate at this time 
was equivalent to the modern practice of banking, 
as it could take the place of money in times of 
necessity. The most important feature of the 
table was the salt-cellar, which was sometimes of 
gold and fashioned in strange devices. It was 
treated with exceeding reverence and placed 
midway on the table as a boundary of distinction ; 
all seated between it and the head of the table 



78 AT TABLE 

being guests, while those of inferior rank sat 
below. Our modern superstitions about salt 
date from early days ; many of our fore- 
fathers threw a pinch over their left shoulder as 
they helped themselves, while others muttered a 
blessing, for it augured ill to spill it or to help 
another to it. The company, having washed 
their hands in bowls of water perfumed with 
sweet extract of herbs and flowers, seated 
themselves at table, and the tablecloth was laid 
with great ceremony. The chaplain then asked 
a blessing and placed the alms-dish on the table. 
"To serve God first," no food was touched until 
a loaf had been placed in the alms-dish, to which 
contributions were constantly added, to be 
distributed to the poor who assembled daily 
at the gate. 

Then to the joyous strain of clarion and 
trumpet the procession entered from the kitchen, 
headed by the marshal of the ceremonies bearing 
the cup and spice plate belonging to the head 
of the house. He was closely followed by cooks 
and yeomen bearing their savoury burdens. 
Huge pieces of meat were served on slices of 
bread, which slices, sodden with gravy, were 
placed in the alms-dish for the poor. Roasts 



NO FOEKS 79 

and birds were carried to table on their spits, 
and each guest tore off as much as he wished. 
Fearsomely greedy were the men and women 
of the thirteenth century. There is a story 
which tells of a man and wife who sat down to 
a roast fowl. Tearing from the spit joint after 
joint, the woman greedily devoured the whole 
bird. " Lo," cried her wrathful husband, " you 
have eaten the whole bird yourself, and nothing 
remains but the spit ; it is but right you should 
taste that also." 

Thereupon he took the spit and beat her 
severely with it. 

Forks had not yet arrived in England from 
Venice, and our ancestors ate, as their fathers 
had eaten, with their fingers. 

"Your meat genteelly with your fingers raise, 
And as in eating there's a certain grace, 
Beware with greasy hands lest you besmear your 
face." 

It was the custom of the Middle Ages for a 
man to bring his own knife to table, and a whet- 
stone hung near for him to sharpen it from time 
to time. Ladies and gentlemen sat side by side, 
so that they might share the same plate. 



80 SCAECITY OF VEGETABLES 

" If you eat with another," runs an old book 
on etiquette, "turn the nicest pieces to him, and 
do not go picking out the finest and largest 
for yourself" — words that would be applied to 
children to-day rather than to grown-up folk. 

It is amusing to note, in passing, the evolution 
of the modern pie. The medieval cook was fond 
of serving up birds in their coffins. Thus a pea- 
cock, still retaining the glory of its plumage, was 
brought to table in a coffin of paste with neck 
erect, tail expanded above the crust, and comb 
richly gilded. Brought into the hall on a silver 
dish, heralded by the blast of many trumpets, it 
was placed before some knight whose prowess had 
won the laurels of the day. Rising, he broke the 
crust, vowing the while that he would rescue some 
captive lady from some mythical monster or die, 
though his vows, like the pie-crust before him, 
were made to be broken. 

Our ancestors loved strong flavours. Porpoise 
or sea swine, whale, and sea wolf were favourite 
dishes at this time ; but, while the tables of the 
thirteenth century were literally loaded with flesh, 
fish, and fowl, vegetables were so scarce that it 
was customary to salt them for keeping. Potatoes 
were of course unheard of, and cabbages were 



ETIQUETTE 81 

imported for the next 300 years, as much as 20s. 
being paid for six cabbages or a few carrots. The 
consumption of spice was enormous — every dish 
was flavoured with it ; cinnamon was handed on a 
golden salver, and sugar was originally treated 
among the spices, till about this time it began to 
be used more liberally in the houses of the 
wealthy, taking the place of honey. 

There was little refinement in these rough days. 
Books of etiquette throw light on the coarseness of 
table manners. " Set never on fish, flesh, or fowl 
more than two fingers and a thumb." " Look thy 
nails be clean, lest thy fellows loathe thee." "If 
thou spit over the table thou shalt be considered 
discourteous." There are requests not to use the 
tablecloth as a handkerchief — handkerchiefs not 
being in use — nor for cleaning the teeth ; sugges- 
tions that the mouth should be wiped before 
drinking, lest grease go into the wine, which is 
very unpleasing for the person who drinks from 
the same cup. 

If such suggestions were necessary in high life, 
what of the labouring classes ? Their condition 
was pitiable indeed. Their primitive hovels 
were as squalid as an Irish cabin of to-day 
Covered in with turf and thatch, they had no 

7 



82 AGKICULTUEAL LABOURERS 

windows and no chimneys, neither were there any 
tapestry or hangings to keep out the bitter cold. 
The labourer could not read or write ; his bread 
was black, and tough as his shoe leather. He had 
no pipe to smoke, nor had he any gin, rum, or 
whisky — for those spirits which have become the 
curse of modern England were as yet undiscovered. 
Only little "ardent spirits " known as cordials, were 
made in well-appointed houses and dealt out by 
the lady of the house in thimblefuls. Money was 
scarce ; the silver penny was the chief coin of the 
realm till halfpennies and farthings were first 
coined in 1276. But what did the agricultural 
labourer want with money ? He paid his " rent " 
in hens and eggs and forced labour. For it will 
be remembered that England was as yet entirely 
an agricultural country, and the holder of much 
rich land was the man of wealth. At the same 
time we must note the industrial progress of the 
period, with its germs of that great mercantile 
development, which has played such an immense 
part in the history of social life in England. 
Each village practically supplied its own wants 
in these days, and what could not be made was 
done without. There was no dumping down of 
foreign goods — the Englishman valued his own 



COMMEECIAL MORALITY 83 

too highly for that. Local wool and hemp sup- 
plied the coarse material to be woven into the 
loose tunics worn by all alike in varying degrees 
of quality ; the village tanner supplied the skins 
of leather for boots and sandals ; the hunter 
procured wolves and cats for fur caps and other 
garments. There were no factories. The medieval 
shop and factory were in one. Goods were made 
within and displayed in the porch without, while 
the family slept in the upper part, when there was 
one — truly a much more snug arrangement than 
the vast factories of to-day, with the specialising 
of work, whereby a man may make screws year 
in, year out, ignorant of the part they are to play 
in the whole. 

The industrial life of the towns was controlled 
by " gilds " — unions of traders to regulate trade 
and exclude foreign rivals. It was the business of 
these gilds to punish short weights and measures, 
to censure "shoddy" material, to reprove un- 
skilled workmanship — in short, to insure commer- 
cial morality, a subject under close discussion 
to-day. It was this early insistence on honest 
dealing which made the English merchant 
respected throughout the commercial world, and 
finally helped to raise him to a position un- 



84 FAIRS 

equalled by European traders. The head of the 
gild was a very important person, who was 
practically the head of the town, presiding over 
the gild-hall or centre of commercial administra- 
tion. He, too, had the organisation of the great 
markets and fairs which were such a feature of 
the thirteenth century. The fairs depended for 
their success on the local trade of each centre. 
Here, in wooden booths arranged on either side 
the narrow streets, the men from the neighbour- 
ing villages displayed their wares. All shops were 
closed for the two or three weeks of the fair, and 
merchants from all parts of England and Europe 
exchanged their goods. It was dangerous work 
getting to and from these fairs, for the merchant 
class were unpopular, and heartily despised by 
barons and nobles. 

" Nobles and gentlemen," they were wont to 
say, " do not carry packs, nor go about trussed 
with bundles. It belongs to beggars to bear bag 
on back, and to burghers to bear purses." Indeed, 
the young nobles were not above plundering 
markets and fairs, or waylaying the heavily 
burdened merchant to deprive him of his 
goods. 

Nevertheless, it is to the merchant class of 



MERCHANTS OF ENGLAND 85 

England that we owe the "full tradition of 
Teutonic liberty." The right of self-government, 
the right of free speech in free meeting, the right 
to equal justice at the hands of equals, were 
brought safely across the ages of tyranny by the 
burghers and shopkeepers of our towns. "They 
have done more than knight and baron to make 
England what she is to-day," by their sturdy 
battle with oppression, their steady, ceaseless 
struggle for right and freedom. 

Their influence can be . traced in the Great 
Charter signed by King and barons in 121 5, this 
"earliest monument of English freedom ... to 
which from age to age patriots have looked back 
as the basis of English liberty," 

The same feeling for liberty made itself felt in 
other ways. A new impulse, gained from the 
Crusades, was spreading through the country ; a 
spirit of restlessness and inquiry was abroad, of 
" impatience with the older traditions of mankind," 
rousing scholars to crowd to the few seats of 
learning, where teachers were gathered together. 
The rise of the Universities was a triumph over 
the rule of brute force of past ages, a movement 
which, unlike the feudal system, recognised no 
distinction between man and man. It formed a 



86 COMING OF THE FRIARS 

new society, resting on a democratic basis, where 
knowledge alone gave superiority, and ancestry 
counted for nought. Masters and poor scholars 
began to discuss matters hitherto taken for 
granted, and the attitude of the Pope towards 
England was eagerly disputed. But, at the same 
time, a great religious "revival" was in process, 
instituted by the friars who now poured across 
the seas into England. The Dominican and 
Franciscan brothers played no small part in the 
social life of the people. They not only preached 
a higher life, but they taught sanitation and 
ventilation ; they nursed the outcast leper and 
ministered to the sick and needy; they fought the 
hideous crime of the thirteenth century, and 
pierced the darkness that had gathered over the 
country. 



CHAPTER VII 
Circa 1250 — 1348 

THE DAWN OF LUXURY 

"For each age is a dream that is dying . 
Or one that is coming to birth." 

O'Shaughnessy. 

NOTWITHSTANDING the barrenness and 
discomfort of the homes of the fourteenth 
century, a strange luxury marks the dress of 
the period. The journeys of the Crusaders to 
the East affected the social life of all Europe. 
Rich silks, costly embroideries, cloths of gold, 
silver girdles, and that mysterious material called 
samite, found their way into England and played 
a large part in the quaint garments of our an- 
cestors of this period. Variety was the order 
of the day ; brilliant colours and fantastic shapes 
characterised the dress of the motley crowds 
that sported in Medieval England. There were 



88 FANTASTIC DRESS 

no short cloth skirts and thick boots for the 
women of those days, though the conditions of 
life were such as to make such a fashion most 
desirable, for there were no carriages to drive in, 
and the mud and the ruts of the country roads 
must have been truly appalling. But the lady 
of those days bravely trailed her long skirts over 
the dirty rushes in the hall, and picked her way 
over the muddy roads and tracks in long pointed 
shoes of some bright coloured material, stretching 
some inches beyond her toes and with ridiculously 
high heels. They were both unlovely and un- 
serviceable. So inconvenient, indeed, were they, 
that the knights, who also indulged in this fan- 
tastic shoe, found the long toes so sadly in the 
way that it was no uncommon sight to see the 
points fastened up to the knee by chains of gold 
or silver. These shoes were known as " Crack- 
owes," after the Polish city where they originated. 
With them the men wore bright coloured 
stockings crossed up the legs with garters — not 
unlike the old Saxon leg-bandage— but with 
their love of colour and variety they often wore 
one stocking green and the other blue, which 
contrast must have looked curious enough below 
their short coloured tunics. Both men and 



LOYE OF BRIGHT COLOURS 89 

women seem to have been as much the slaves 
of fashion in those old days as we are to-day. 
In their long peaked shoes they went to church, 
but their devotions were seriously disturbed 
thereby : — 

"When other knelis 
Thei stonde on here hells 
For hurtying of here hose 
I trow, for her long toes." 

The clergy were not above wearing these long 
peaked shoes themselves ; so the fashion passed 
unrebuked for a time. The gorgeous tunics worn 
by the nobles came from the East, with jewelled 
girdle and dagger, more for ornament than for 
use, and over this lavish costume hung a splendid 
mantle, literally shining with gold thread — a fine- 
weather garment, one would suppose, and wholly 
unsuited to our gloomy English skies and torrents 
of autumnal rain. They had no umbrellas or 
parasols, for which reason, perhaps, they wore 
somewhat elaborate headgear. While the men 
wore their hair long and carefully curled, the 
ladies mostly gathered theirs up into nets of gold 
thread, or plaited it with gold wire to make it 
stand out more stiffly under the bright kerchief 



90 SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS 

with jewelled pins or the odd frames which 
often enough encircled their heads. With this 
and the throttling wimple round their necks, 
they were amply protected. Hoods with long 
points were worn by the poorer classes, or flat 
caps made of fur. The dull uniformity and 
sombre hues of our modern dress were left for 
monk and merchant, for each profession had its 
distinctive costume, each social grade was dis- 
tinguished by the cut and texture of its garments. 
To-day the workman can dress as the duke, the 
tradesman's wife as a Royal Princess, but in the 
fourteenth century this was utterly impossible. 
Thus, loitering about the streets of an old 
medieval city one might recognise the young 
noble with tippet and long jagged sleeves, short 
tunic, piebald legs and pointed shoes, followed 
perhaps by a servant carrying his mantle ; the 
hooded merchant in his long gown of brown 
or grey, girded at the waist; the workman in his 
russet smock and flat cap ; the monk in his sombre 
frock, and the pilgrim distinguishable by his 
long beard and staff in hand. Some of the most 
extravagant fashions were adopted by the clergy, 
whose vestments and robes were magnificently 
embroidered with flowers and figures and lined 



POWER OF THE PRIESTS 91 

with costly furs. Gloves were a great feature 
of ecclesiastical dress, and often bequeathed as 
valuable legacies. But for all their extravagances, 
the clergy were a great power in the land. Our 
ancestors attended church regularly and methodi- 
cally on Sundays and holydays ; they sat in pews 
according to their rank, which remains of feu- 
dalism have survived in country churches to this 
day, while the retainers and servants stood in 
the " alleys." The walls of the churches were 
bright with fresco, so that the most ignorant could 
glean lessons from the stories of the Saints. 
There were no pulpits yet, and sermons were 
rare, but the Sacraments of the Church were duly 
administered, and the faith of our medieval fore- 
fathers was touching in its extreme simplicity. 

Simple indeed were their lives altogether. 
They still went early to bed — sleeping between 
the sheets with nothing on but a nightcap — and 
rose with the sun. They started off on their 
hunting and hawking expeditions when the 
labourers were starting for their work in the 
fields. Men and women went hawking together, 
sometimes on horseback, sometimes on foot, 
but this sport was reserved for the King and 
nobles, and no poor man might even keep a 



92 HAWKING 

hawk. The birds were chosen, bred, and trained 
with the greatest care and skill ; they had perches 
in the bedroom and hall of their owners, whom 
they accompanied everywhere — even to church. 
They were attached to the wrist by a leather 
or silk strap, called a jesse, which passed between 
the fingers of the owner's left hand. 

Perhaps this account of an old Royal hawking 
expedition will serve to explain the sport : " The 
King rode in front, attended by his seneschal, 
marshal, constables, chamberlains, falconers and 
other household officers, to a neighbouring 
wood, where there was a noted eyrie of herons, 
and there in a marshy meadow by the woodside 
they could see in the distance several of the 
great birds of which they were in quest. The 
King was desirous of proving a magnificent 
Norway hawk of a snowy whiteness. As soon 
as the falconers with their dogs arrived, the 
noble falcon, already un hooded, was thrown off 
upon the track. Then, although the heron flew 
as stoutly as could have been wished, the falcon, 
cutting the air with her strong pinions, closed in 
upon him and overtopped him in ever narrowing 
circles, when, having gained her distance, she 
swooped upon him like a thunderbolt, and down 



MEDIEVAL SPORT 93 

they fell together, through a cloud of feathers, 
into the tree tops on the edge of the wood, 
where the falcon was secured." 

Sometimes a whole party of ladies would go 
hawking or hunting alone, so keen were they 
on sport in those days. Accompanied by grey- 
hounds, they hunted stag and rabbit, shooting 
them with bows and long-headed arrows. Not 
infrequently they roused the game by means 
of beating on a tabor. Partridges, quails and 
woodcocks were usually hawked. One cannot 
help feeling that the women must have looked 
very unsportsmanlike with their long gowns 
trailing behind them and coloured kerchiefs 
on their heads ; but they could ride astride their 
horses as well as on side-saddles,^ they could 
wind a horn as well as any man, and use their 
spurs without compunction. They joined with 
men in all out-door sports, which were of a some- 
what boisterous description, and lacking in that 
refinement and delicacy of which we think so 
much to-day. But those were days of light 
hearts and merry faces, when responsibility sat 
less heavy than it does in this twer^tieth century, 
and sorrow was faced with a firm, unwavering 
* Introduced by Anne of Bohemia. 



94 GAMES 

faith that neither doubted nor despaired. Like 
happy children — if uncouth and ill-mannered — 
they played their riotous games of Blind Man's 
Buff or Hoodman Blind, as they called it, Hot 
Cockles, Battledore and Shuttlecock, Prisoner's 
Base, and Frog in the Middle ; they danced 
and they " tumbled " ; they played with balls, 
with whipping-tops, with ninepins, with bowls; 
they revelled in cock-fighting and bull-baiting, 
and derived amusement from many another 
pastime. 

Martial sports, too, were developing, and the 
knightly tournament played its part in the lives 
of the English nobility. Perhaps the spirit of 
knightly chivalry attained its highest develop- 
ment in the fourteenth century. Its effect on 
the minds of Englishmen was distinctly good : it 
" inspired a thousand generous thoughts and 
heroic actions, and laid the foundation of that 
most perfect character, the true English gentle- 
man ; " but too often the spectacle degenerated 
into odd extravagances and added fire to passions 
already fierce and uncontrolled,so that the splendid 
arena was defiled with brutal and regrettable in- 
cidents. Magnificent indeed was the armour of 
the knight as he tilted at the tournament, rich 



CHESS 95 

with ornament and literally sparkling with jewels 
while the seats of the spectators were heavy with 
gold and silver embroidery, and the dresses of 
them that sat therein were extravagant in fantastic 
freak and reflected untold wealth. The presenta- 
tion of rich prizes, distributed by the fairest in 
the land to the victorious competitors, completed 
the entertainment, and the night was spent in 
feast and dance. 

Nevertheless, there must have been many long, 
dark evenings indoors between the months of 
November and February, when the dim lights 
in hall and bedroom made work impossible. 
Chess was still the favourite game with the 
upper classes, as it had been with their fore- 
fathers. The game was played for money, often 
for very high stakes, and it is no matter of 
surprise to learn that in those days of strong 
passions and lack of self-control feeling ran 
high, and the game gave rise to constant quarrels 
and hot disputings, ending not infrequently in 
bloodshed. The chessmen were elaborately carved 
and large enough to be formidable when hurled 
at an adversary in rage. Indeed, there is more 
than one instance in history of an opponent being 
brained with a chess-board, of knives being drawn 



96 PUNISHMENTS 

and men slain in the heat of the game ! Back- 
gammon, under the name of " Tables," was played 
with double boards and dice, even as it is to-day, 
as also was the game of draughts, which came 
over from France under the name of " Dames." 
There was no card playing as yet, for cards were 
not introduced into England till quite the end 
of the fourteenth century, and they did not 
become universally popular till later, when chess 
went out of fashion. 

Even during the playing of chess and draughts 
it was no uncommon thing for the domestic jester 
to enliven the family circle and for troops of 
jugglers, tumblers, rope-dancers, buffoons, with 
attendant apes and dogs, to crowd the hall in 
gay confusion. There was no privacy in those 
days. In public they ate and drank and talked 
and played and slept, in public they were punished 
for their crimes, both great and small. Thus a 
man would sit on the village green with his 
feet in the stocks ; a scold would sit in the vil- 
lage street on the cuck-stool, to be derided by all 
who passed ; a fraudulent baker or butcher would 
stand with hands and neck in the pillory, with 
his name writ large above him, while the disputed 
goods were burnt under his nose or hung round his 



PUBLICITY OF PUNISHMENTS 97 

neck. Every village had its whipping-post, every 
town had its gallows for hanging, and public dis- 
grace played a prominent part in the punishments 
of medieval times. The derision and scorn of the 
populace must have been hard to bear, however 
well it may have been deserved. But, after all, 
it must be noted that the lighter punishments 
fitted the crimes of those days, and were in 
some cases more wholesome than the solitary 
confinement of the modern prison. The heavier 
crimes were over-severely punished. From the 
days of Edward I. theft was punished with death 
in some form or another, and treason by hanging, 
drawing, and quartering. The low value set on 
life in the fourteenth century marks a strange 
contrast to that of the twentieth century, and it 
is instructive to mark the want of concern at the 
public death of a medieval criminal as though it 
were an everyday occurrence. On the other hand, 
Englishmen were revolted by the idea of the 
Inquisition, with its attendant tortures, that was 
making its way over the Continent at this time, 
and, though torture was used later as a means 
of extorting confession from the criminal, yet 
it is ever to the credit of our forefathers, in 
a rough and barbarous age, that they had 

8 



98 EUROPEAN TORTURE 

the humanity and strength to stand out against 
the merciless and excruciating tortures which 
characterise the European punishments of these 
times. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Circa 1348—1399 

DEPOPULATION 

"They come, the shapes of joy and woe, 
The au-y crowds of long ago. 
The dreams and fancies known of yore, 
That have been, and shall be no more." 

Longfellow. 

THE sufferings inflicted by the punishments 
of the Middle Ages must have been slight 
compared to the miseries produced by the gross 
ignorance of the doctors and surgeons of these 
old times. It is impossible not to smile at their 
strenuous efforts to appear learned before their 
unhappy patients. Our forefathers suffered from 
much the same diseases as we do to-day : they 
had consumption and cancer, gout and rheumatism 
and measles, epilepsy and whooping-cough ; they 
had wounds and sores to be treated with no 

antiseptic dressings, operations to be performed 

99 

LOFC 



100 MEDIEVAL DOCTOES 

by rough barbers with no anaesthetics. Faith 
healing still played a large part in the cure of 
Middle Age maladies, and so deeply-rooted was 
the idea that prayer and intercession, combined 
with a concoction of herbs from the monastery 
gardens, would heal the sick, that it was deemed 
a want of faith to employ other remedies. " It 
is better," they said, "to fall into the hands of 
God than into the hands of men," a beneficial 
reflection, when one considers for a moment 
what the " hands of men " meant. A strange 
mixture of magic and superstition, astrology and 
astronomy, logic and alchemy, seemed to be 
necessary for the medieval doctor. Men had a 
firm belief in the relation between the human 
body and planets, and medicine was administered 
according to planetary influence only. Chaucer's 
physician is well "groundit in astronomy" 

"He kept is pacient a ful gret del 
In hourys by his magyk naturel ; 
Wei couth he fortunen the ascendent 
Of his ymags for his pacient." 

The famous medical schools at Salerno "sup- 
plied the fires from which the other nations lit 
their torches" during the eleventh, twelfth, and 



EEOEIPTS 101 

thirteenth centuries. Wounded Crusaders brought 
to England news of new methods and practice in 
the art of medicine and surgery ; Franciscan and 
Dominican Friars had given a fresh impetus to 
medical learning in this country, but Roger Bacon, 
the most learned Englishman of his day, devoted 
too much of his time to the creation of tinctures 
and elixirs for the renewal of youth. Indeed, all 
the medieval doctors devoted much attention to 
this subject, which was of prior importance in 
these days. Here is one of their receipts : — 

" To make the hair golden, take of elder bark, 
flowers of broom, yolk of egg, and saffron, equal 
parts ; boil them in water ; skim off what floats 
on the surface and use as pomade." 

And here is another : — 

" A Marvellous Balsam. — Take thrice distilled 
turpentine, lign-aloes, ambergris, and musk, equal 
parts, rub them up to a liquid ointment and distil 
nine times. Used on the face it will preserve 
youth, heal all wounds, marvellously clear the 
eyes, and preserve the body from all forms of 
putrefaction." 

The following hints to medieval doctors 
show how little medical knowledge they really 
possessed : — 



102 DOCTOR AND PATIENT 

" When called to a patient commend yourself 
to God and to the angel who guided Tobias. On 
the way learn as much as possible from the 
messenger, so that if you can discover nothing 
from the patient's pulse, you may still astonish 
him and gain his confidence by your knowledge 
of the case. On arrival, ask the friends whether 
the patient has confessed, for if you bid him do 
so after the examination it will frighten him. 
Then sit down, take a drink, and praise the 
beauty of the country or extol the liberality of 
the family. Next, proceed to feel his pulse. Do 
not be in a hurry to give an opinion, for his 
friends will be more grateful for your judgment if 
they have to wait for it. Tell the patient you 
will by God's help cure him, but inform his 
friends that the case is a serious one." 

*' Suppose you know nothing," suggests a 
writer of this period, "say there is an obstruc- 
tion of the liver. Perhaps the patient will reply : 
* Nay, Master, it is my head or my legs that 
trouble me.' Repeat that it comes from the 
liver and especially use the word * obstruction/ 
for patients do not understand it, which is 
important." 

" When you go to a patient, always try and do 



TO SECURE A FEE 103 

something new every day, lest they say you are 
good at nothing but books." 

" Work on your patients ; secure their con- 
fidence, light up their imagination, and you are 
sure of success." 

The doctor's fee was a much-considered item : 
" Never dine with a patient who has not paid you ; 
it will be cheaper to get your dinner at an inn, 
for such feasts are usually deducted from the 
surgeon's fee." 

Here is an ingenious device for securing the 
fee : " When you are treating a wound or accident, 
the friends of the patient should be excluded, 
for they may faint and cause a disturbance, but 
sometimes a higher fee may be got from persons 
present fainting and breaking their heads against 
wood and the like, than from the principal 
patient." 

Some of their prescriptions are equally sug- 
gestive. Here is an ingenious cure for lethargy : 
" Shave the patient's head and anoint it with 
honey; the flies will so worry him that he will 
continually strike out at them, which will cure 
his lethargy." 

Or here are instructions for the treatment of 
palpitations : " Let the patient avoid all coarse 



104 GROSS IGNORANCE 

meats, such as that of oxen, goats, horses, camels, 
and water-fowl, rich fish, pastry, new bread, and 
old or moist cheese. Let him take moderate 
exercise before eating and rest entirely after it, 
and then ride horses or gently-trotting mules, 
avoiding rapid ascents or descents. Frequent 
combing of the hair is a great help, especially 
after sleep, for it assists the evaporation of the 
humours which ascend to the head." 

In the same book there is an elaborate receipt 
for driving away mice : " Take realgar, salt, pome- 
granite bark, hellebore root, sulphur, litharge, and 
shells of shrimps, equal parts, rub together, and 
sprinkle on hot coals through the house. All 
mice will flee and will never come back. But 
do you also avoid that fume, for it is horrible 
exceedingly ! " 

One paragraph is specially funny. " In this 
book," says the author, " I propose with God's 
help to consider diseases peculiar to women, and 
since women are, for the most part, poisonous 
creatures, I shall then proceed to treat of the bites 
of venomous beasts." 

Such, briefly, were the crude ideas surrounding 
the art of medicine, while surgery was chiefly in 
the hands of the barbers, when the terrible Black 



THE BLACK DEATH 105 

Death burst over England, defying all human skill 
to stay its deadly onslaught. It was a " calamity 
which was the most stupendous that ever befell 
this island." Having carried off some five million 
Chinese, it crept over Asia, Africa, and Europe, 
depopulating each city it attacked. It varied in 
form, but rarely in its fatal results. In England 
it was characterised by large boils and black spots, 
known as " God's tokens," from which it took its 
name, and ended with violent inflammation of the 
lungs and death. It might last three days ; more 
often death ensued in a few hours. It attacked 
all classes : from the Archbishop of Canterbury 
to the poorest labourer, none was safe ; it spread 
like wildfire through every village and town in 
England ; it carried off mother and child alike. 
Homes were left childless, children fatherless; 
churches were left without pastors, monasteries 
without priors, convents without abbess or nuns. 

" So they died ! The dead were slaying the dying, 
And a famine of strivers silenced strife : 
There were none to love and none to wed, 
And pity and joy and hope had fled, 
And grief had spent her passion in sighing; 
And where was the Spirit of Life ? " 

At last the plague was stayed, but not till half 



106 NEW SOCIAL ORDER 

the population of England lay dead. The whole 
organisation of the country was disturbed, cultiva- 
tion was at a standstill. " Sheep and cattle 
strayed through the fields and corn, and there 
were none left who could drive them." Harvests 
lay rotting on the ground, fields were unploughed, 
crops ungathered, seeds unsown : the sound of 
the grinding was low, and mourners went about 
the streets. 

It was this wholesale destruction of life that 
gave rise to a new social order of things in 
the land, creating for the first time that discord 
between the employer and employed which has 
been so marked a feature of economic England 
from the fourteenth century even to the present 
time. Already the system of cultivation by 
forced service had given way to payments in 
kind, which in the reign of Edward III. had 
become yet more general. But now half the 
labourers had disappeared from the face of the 
land, and those who remained alive demanded 
higher wages. They had suddenly become in- 
dispensable to the large landowners and were in 
a position for the first time to dictate their own 
terms. Women who had worked in the fields for 
a penny a day now demanded twopence. With 



SOCIAL DISCONTENT 107 

one accord the poor refused to live on " penny ale 
and bacon"; they demanded "fresh flesh or fish 
fried or baked." Measures were hastily taken 
against this insubordination on the part of the 
working classes. A Statute of Labourers recalled 
the survivors to a sense of their menial position, 
fixed a scale of wages at the same rates as they 
had been before the Black Death, and ordered 
punishment to be inflicted on those who demanded 
more. The result spelt friction between rich and 
poor, landowner and wage-earner. Up to this 
time the whole system of social inequality had 
passed " unquestioned as to the Divine order of 
the world." Now a smouldering discontent arose, 
which could not be smothered. John Ball voiced 
the general feeling. For the first time English- 
men listened to one who upheld natural equality 
and the rights of man — the words of the agitator 
sum up the social status of the people : — 

" Things will never go well in England so long 
as goods be not in common and so long as there 
be villeins and gentlemen. By what right are 
they whom we call lords greater folk than we are ? 
On what grounds have they deserved it? If we 
all come of the same father and mother, of Adam 
and Eve, how can they say or prove that they are 



108 EIGHTS OF MAN 

better than we, if it be not that they make us gain 
for them by our toil what they spend in their 
pride? They are clothed in velvet and warm in 
their furs and their ermines, while we are covered 
with rags. They have wine and spices and fair 
bread ; we have oat cake and straw, and water to 
drink. They have leisure and fine houses ; we 
have pain and labour, the rain and the wind in 
the fields." 

"When Adam delved and Eve span, 
Who was then the gentleman ? " 

sang the English labourer, newly roused to a sense 
of his natural rights — rights which no legislation 
could crush and no tyranny deny. Through the 
intervening centuries the assertion of these rights 
has been more and more pronounced, until 
to-day the time has ripened for yet vaster natural 
developments, and the labourer has secured that 
representation in Parliament which is his right 
in a free country. 



CHAPTER IX 

Circa 1399 — 1485 

RISE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS 

"Das Alte sturzt, es andert sich die Zeit 
Und neues Leben bluht aus den Ruinen." 

Schiller. 

THE fifteenth century ushered in yet more 
far-reaching changes in the social condition 
of the people than any that had gone before. The 
ideas of dawning change have already been sug- 
gested, for the great fabric of the feudal system, 
which for over four centuries had resisted all 
pressure, had been hard hit by the Peasant Revolt. 
Now it was to fall into ruins, from which the great 
middle class, that " backbone of England," was to 
rise triumphant. And — paradoxical as it may 
seem — the barons themselves caused the change. 
At the height of their wealth, when luxury in food 
and dress was at its zenith and the poor were 

109 



110 BARONS' WAR 

down-trodden and miserable, the heads of many 
great houses in England hurled themselves into a 
conflict, known as the Wars of the Roses, from 
which they never again rose to their ancient pride 
and splendour. While they fought, merchants and 
artisans, tradesmen and small landowners quietly 
strengthened their position, developed the in- 
dustries of the country, accumulated wealth, and 
ushered in that new social condition that made 
England what she was in the Victorian era 
— the greatest commercial country in the world. 
The weary contest with France at an end, the 
acquirement of wealth by the middle classes 
tended to the comfort and improvement of the 
home. Beside the castle and manor-house a 
number of houses sprang up in town and country — 
houses with the addition of court and garden, with 
a second story containing several bedrooms in- 
stead of one, a withdrawing-room to ensure more 
privacy, and a parlour (parlering or speaking 
room) to obviate the necessity of receiving guests 
in the bedroom. This parlour was better furnished 
than the hall, which still remained somewhat bare 
with its plain wooden benches and long dining- 
table, though even here luxury was creeping in 
and covering the benches with cushions of damask 



MOKE LUXURY 111 

from Damascus. A massive fireplace and chimney- 
characterised the parlour, and a coal fire, necessi- 
tating the invention of tongs, supplemented the use 
of logs. Wooden benches, usually to hold three 
people, were attached to the walls, while the rest 
of the furniture included a movable wooden chair, 
a table on trestles, a cupboard, and curtains of 
"worsted," which material was now being made 
at the little Norfolk village of that name. This 
worsted supplied a substitute for the rich tapestry 
which still helped to keep out draughts from the 
large hall and added warmth and comfort to the 
parlour. But perhaps the most important feature 
of the new room was the large window recess, 
furnished on either side with goodly benches of 
stone-work, the windows glazed with small 
diamond-shaped panes. These recesses formed 
pleasant retreats for the maiden with her distaff, as 
also for the young squire or gallant who sought to 
court her, with all the romantic fervour that char- 
acterised the age. From this window, too, could 
be witnessed those festivities which still made the 
old halls ring with joyous mirth. The walls of the 
parlour were usually painted. For some time past 
it had been considered a luxury to smooth the 
surface of walls with cement and to panel the 



112 ETIQUETTE 

lower part with oak wainscoting. Above the oak 
were mural paintings of historical or religious 
subjects. From the roof, beams were suspended 
to hold several candles, and the floor was either 
paved or covered with a Spanish carpet, though 
rushes were still strewed in the hall as of yore. 

Nevertheless, with all its obvious advantages, 
the parlour was looked on as an innovation by the 
conservatives of the fifteenth century. The grow- 
ing practice of dining in "privy parlors with 
chimneys " is denounced by a contemporary as a 
degenerate luxury. "Sondrie nobil men, gentle- 
men, and others, doe much delighte and use to 
dine in corners and secret places, not repairing to 
the high chamber." This was the complaint of 
the age. Dinner was still one of the chief events 
of the day, though the manners at table were yet 
rough and ready, as may be seen by the old books 
of etiquette of this time. " Do not spit upon the 
table" is an oft repeated maxim. Among other 
things, we find requests "not to return back to 
your plate the food you have just put into your 
mouth ; not to drink from a cup with a dirty 
mouth ; not to offer another person the remains of 
your pottage ; not to eat much cheese ; to take 
only two or three nuts when they are placed 



MEDIEVAL MENU 113 

before you ; not to get intoxicated during dinner ; 
not to carry the victuals to your mouth with a 
knife." Our forefathers still ate with their fingers ; 
though forks, often of silver, had been introduced 
into England, they were only used for eating 
pears and fruit or for picking up " soppys." 

The art of cooking had developed, and a number 
of manuscript cookery books throw floods of light 
on the domestic life of this period. Here is one of 
the shortest menus for a little medieval dinner — 

First Course, 

Boar's head larded and "bruce" for pottage. 
Beef. Mutton. Legs of Pork. 
Swan. Roasted Rabbit. Tart. 

Second Course. 

Drore and Rose for pottage. 

Mallard. Pheasant. Chickens stuffed and roasted. 

"Malachis" baked. 

Third Course. 

Rabbits in gravy and hare in " brase " for pottage. 

Teals roasted. Woodcock. Snipes. 

"Raviuolis" baked. Pork pies. 

Each of these items needed elaborate prepara- 
tion. Here is the receipt for " bruce " : " Take 
the umbles of a swine and parboil them, and cut 
them small and put them in a pot with some good 

9 



114 MEDIEVAL FEASTS 

broth ; take the whites of leeks and slit them, cut 
them small and put them in with mixed onions 
and let it all boil ; next take bread steeped in 
broth and 'draw it up' with blood and vinegar, 
and put it into a pot with pepper and cloves and 
let it boil ; serve all together." Here, too, is the 
receipt for " drore," which must have made a most 
savoury soup : " Take almonds and blanch them 
and mix them with good meat broth and seethe 
this in a pot ; then mince onions and fry them in 
fresh ' grease ' and put them to the almonds ; 
take small birds and parboil them, and throw them 
into the pottage with cinnamon and cloves and a 
little fair grease and boil the whole." 

The fifteenth century was famous for its feasts, 
where the consumption of food was almost 
incredible. Here are but some items out of a 
much longer list of orders for a feast in 1466 : 
300 tuns of ale, 100 tuns of wine, 104 oxen, 6 wild 
bulls, 1,000 sheep, 304 calves, 304 swine, 400 swans, 
2,000 geese, 1,000 capons, 2,000 pigs, 104 peacocks, 
204 kids, 2,000 chickens, 4,000 pigeons, 200 
pheasants, 500 partridges, 400 woodcocks, 4,000 
cold and 1,500 hot venison patties, 4,000 dishes 
of jelly, 4,000 baked tarts, and 2,000 hot 
custards, &c. 



MEDIEVAL GARDENS 115 

It is little wonder that the death-rate was high 
in the Middle Ages, and that the wealthy mostly 
died under the age of forty, though this was due 
to many causes besides the enormous consump- 
tion of meat and the almost entire absence of 
vegetable diet. 

In the garden of this period grew very few 
vegetables, for England was behind France, Italy 
and the Low Countries in this respect. Never- 
theless, the garden, hitherto restricted mostly to 
the monasteries, now began to be a necessary 
addition to the new half-timbered house that 
was springing up in town and country. True, 
there had been pleasure grounds and "pleasaunt 
playing places" for the ladies of the wealthy 
long before this — grounds with grottoes and 
fountains and sweet-smelling herbs ; here, too, 
was the trellised arbour half smothered in rose 
and honeysuckle, vines and creeping flowers. 
But the fifteenth-century garden was made 
mainly for the purpose of supplying and flavour- 
ing foods, as well as for medicinal purposes. 
Thus special flowers were grown for flavouring 
soups, including sweet violets, corn-marigolds, 
red nettles, daisies, and columbine ; for making 
sauces, there were sorrel, violets, parsley, and 



116 MEDIEVAL FRUIT 

mint ; for salads, violet flowers, parsley, red 
mint, cress, primrose buds, daisies, dandelion, and 
red fennel, to be enten raw with olive oil and 
spices ; the roots included parsnips, turnips, 
radishes, "karettes," and saffron. One great 
ambition of the medieval gardener was to excel 
in the art of grafting. They grafted vines on 
cherry-trees, pears on hawthorns, apples on 
elms. They were thoroughly ingenious, but 
hopelessly unpractical. "If thou wilt that in 
the stone of a peach be found a nut-kernal, 
graft a sprout of a peach-tree on the stock of 
a nut-tree," suggests an old gardening book ; 
and yet again : " A peach-tree shall bring forth 
pomegranates if it be sprinkled with goat's milk 
three days when it beginneth to flower, and 
the apples of a peach-tree shall wax red if 
its scion be grafted on a playne-tree." 

But if our forefathers neglected the cultivation 
of vegetables, they encouraged the art of fruit- 
growing in England. Apples and pears grew 
in great variety ; they had medlars, figs, and 
cherries, quinces, plums, peaches, gooseberries, 
and mulberries; cultivated strawberries were yet 
rare, but they grew to a good size in the famous 
gardens at Holborn. For the most part they 



FLOWER GARDENS 117 

were eaten wild out of the woods, as we gather 
blackberries to-day. 

Let us picture for a moment the garden of 
this period. There is a square enclosure bounded 
by walls of stone, brick, or thick-set hedge with 
two entrances, one opening from the house, the 
other into an orchard or field. It is very neatly 
kept and the air is sweet with fragrant herbs : 
at intervals there are recesses with seats and 
benches covered with turf, " thick-set and soft 
as any velvet," past which run little paths 
covered with sand or gravel, intersecting the 
garden. Surrounding the arbour are periwinkles, 
marigolds, lilies, wild geranium, mallow, or cow- 
slips, daffodils, and foxgloves. Here the ladies 
come to gather flowers to make wreaths and 
garlands for their heads. We see again Chaucer's 
" Emilie " wandering in the garden at sunrise, 
her braided yellow hair hanging down in its 
long plait below her waist, singing out of the 
very lightness of her heart as she weaves a 
garland for her head. 

The ladies of the fifteenth century were very 
much taken up with their head-dresses. These 
were truly wonderful. They were large, heavy, 
and ungraceful, and excited much wrath and 



118 TALL HEAD-DRESSES 

ridicule. Some were like steeples, with long 
streamers hanging down from the top ; they 
were made of rolls upon rolls of linen, towering 
some two feet above the head and ending in a 
point, not unlike an extinguisher. Some were 
like a bishop's mitre, immoderately broad and 
high, while some fastened two great pro- 
jecting towers of rolled lawn and ribbon on 
their heads, which looked like two great horns. 
Indeed, so extreme and immoderate were the 
head-dresses that the doors of the Royal palaces 
had to be made higher and wider to enable 
the ladies to pass through. The lady of the 
period must have been sorely hampered and 
harassed by her costume, though the long trail- 
ing skirt was fast passing out of fashion. Men 
and women were alike adopting the doublet, 
or short padded jacket, pleated below the waist 
and fastened with a girdle laced in front across 
a stomacher of coloured satin, linen, tawny 
silk, or murrey-coloured taffeta. Enormous hang- 
ing sleeves were worn, and it is related that 
Edward IV. used to tie his behind his back to 
avoid tumbling over them as he walked. For 
a time pointed shoes continued to be the fashion, 
but soon length gave way to breadth and broad 



LAWS OF DRESS 119 

shoes came in, known as "duckbills." Leather 
was now used for boots and shoes, which 
were often double-soled, a distinct advantage, 
considering the deep mud of the uncleaned 
roads. So exaggerated and costly had dress 
become that in 1463 a petition was presented 
to Parliament against the " inordinate use of 
apparell and aray of men and women." The 
rising power and wealth of the middle classes 
made the nobles feel that their dignity was at 
stake when their fashions in dress were copied 
by the democracy. Laws were passed enforcing 
the social barrier, as far as dress was concerned. 
Only a lord and his wife might wear a stomacher 
worked in gold or sable ; only a Knight of the 
Garter might wear velvet ; small squires might 
not wear damask or satin ; yeomen were for- 
bidden to pad their doublets or to wear costly 
fur, while the labouring classes might not buy 
cloth above two shillings a yard, and were for 
the most part restricted to coarse flannel, fustian, 
and linen girdles. 

Linen and woollen stuffs were largely used, 
and to encourage home manufactures Henry IV. 
prohibited the importation of foreign cloth. 
Linen sheets and blankets were used now for 



120 BEDS 

beds, which must have been much more com- 
fortable than in olden times. True, the mattress 
or matted truss of straw was still used, but the 
feather bed had been recently imported from 
France. In an old " Guide to Servants," written 
in the fifteenth century, the groom of the chamber 
is told " the feder bed to bete, but no federys 
waste." On this feather bed was laid the fustian 
or blanket, over it the linen sheets, which still 
served the purpose of nightgown, and the bed 
was covered with a " pane " of ermine or a 
richly embroidered quilt. Beds were handed 
down from generation to generation as valuable 
personal property, and it is interesting to re- 
member how, at a later date, Shakspere's will is 
explicit on the subject of leaving his " second 
best bed" to his wife, though he says nothing 
of rights in his plays. One of our forefathers 
bequeaths his daughter "a feather bed next the 
best, a mattress lying under the same, three pairs 
of sheets, two pillows and a pair of blankets," 
while another, a rich tradesman, leaves to his 
niece "my green hanged bed, stained with my 
arms therein, that hangeth in the chamber over 
kitchen, with the curtains, the green covering 
belonging thereto ; another coverlit, one pair of 



GKEATER COMFORT 121 

blankets, one pair good sheets, a great pillow and 
small pillow and feather bed." 

With a greater degree of comfort came an 
exaggerated idea of luxury, which was criticised 
and preached against as it is to-day. But com- 
pared with the nineteenth century the luxury 
of the Middle Ages is indeed unenviable, and it 
is impossible to look back with any longing or 
regrets to the days of our medieval ancestors. 



CHAPTER X 

Fifteenth Century 

CHURCH AND PEOPLE 

"For all we thought and loved and did 
And hoped and suffered, is but seed 
Of what in them is flower and fruit." 

Tennyson. 

IT is impossible to turn from the manners and 
customs of the Middle Ages without noting 
the immense influence of the Church on the 
social life of the people. In her " yet unbroken 
unity," she "appealed with overpowering force 
to the imagination of her children. Her cere- 
monies were associated with every important 
phase of private life from the cradle to the grave ; 
her cathedrals and parish churches were the only 
public buildings to which every class had the 
same rights and opportunities of access . . . her 
sanctuaries alone could give passing shelter to 

123 



124 THE PAEISH CHURCH 

the hunted criminal or outlaw, her holidays alone 
brought rest and freedom to the serf." 

In the very midst of town and hamlet stood 
the parish church — the pride and joy of the 
people. Gradually the Norman style, already 
described, had been replaced by the pointed arch 
of Gothic architecture, and after a period of 
transition, during which the nave of Durham 
Cathedral and the choir of Canterbury arose, 
the Early English style came in, and was first 
used on a large scale in Lincoln Cathedral, to 
be replaced in its turn by the Perpendicular. 
While -their homes, judged by our modern 
standards, were yet bare and comfortless, our 
ancestors lavished money and thought on the 
decoration of their church. To adorn and beautify 
it was a labour of love in which every class of 
society shared. The poor man gave his toil, the 
prosperous burgher presented painted glass 
windows, the successful gilds bestowed altar- 
cloths, the traveller brought back Eastern silks, 
the wealthy gave silver chalices, embroidered 
copes, costly hangings, banners, lamps, shrines ; 
no man died without bequeathing what he could 
to his parish church. So likewise the local artist 
carved the seats, local scribes wrote the Mass- 



POWER OF THE PRIESTS 125 

books and psalters ; a sense of personal possession 
pervaded all classes. To the church the busy 
trader would wend his way after a day of stir and 
turmoil, there to listen to the chanting of vespers, 
or to tell his beads before the image of some 
favourite saint. Not only did the people keep 
their church for prayer and meditation, but, if 
necessary, they stored in it their grain and wool ; 
here councillors met for consultation on local 
affairs ; here, in the long, dim aisles, lay at times 
the sick and the dying. No line sundered matters 
of religion from the affairs of daily life : State and 
Church were blended into one ; the people looked 
to the priests in matters secular as well as in 
matters spiritual. The education of the children 
was entirely in the hands of ecclesiastics, for 
they were the only scholars in the country ; they 
taught the children a little Latin, the rudiments 
of reading and writing, grammar and deportment. 
One sorrow of childhood was spared the children 
of the Middle Ages : they had no spelling to learn ; 
phonetic spelling was general ; the letters of one 
word are constantly varied, and we have the word 
" chancellor " spelt in five different ways in a 
single deed of Oxford University. Boys and girls 
were taught together for the most part, but the 



126 GRAMMAE SCHOOLS 

sixteen grammar schools founded during this 
period were exclusively for boys. Besides these, 
were the new schools of Winchester and Eton, 
which take such a leading part in the educational 
world of to-day. Both were established for the 
supply of educated clergy — Winchester with a 
warden and some seventy scholars " to study 
grammar and to live together to the honour and 
glory of God and our Lady." 

Not only was all education — public and private 
— under ecclesiastical control, but to the Church 
-vas due the elaborate pilgrimages, which were 
such a characteristic feature of these times. True, 
the movement had lost much of the simple 
enthusiasm and artless faith of former days, and 
too often resembled a party of holiday-makers, 
merely journeying together for company and 
protection. A love of wayfaring, gossip, and 
good company, together with the merry incidents 
of the road, attracted many under the guise 
of pilgrims to undertake the journey to the 
famous English shrines of St. Thomas Becket at 
Canterbury or Our Lady of Walsingham. To 
cross the rough Channel and tramp the long 
distance across France to the tombs of SS. Peter 
and Paul, one of the severest penitential disciplines 



PILGRIMAGE 127 

enjoined by the Church, was a pilgrimage under- 
taken only by the most sincere, for the journey 
took three months, and the discomforts of the way 
were great. 

Sometimes on horseback, sometimes on foot, 
journeyed the medieval pilgrim. Twenty miles 
a day was the ordinary rate of progression, but 
much time was spent in the taverns by the way, 
and in changing horses at roadside inns. For 
Canterbury they started from the famous Tabard 
Inn in South wark, paying twelvepence to Rochester 
and another twelvepence for a horse to Canterbury. 
Chaucer, in his well-known " Canterbury Tales " 
gives us the whole atmosphere of the fourteenth 
century pilgrimage with graphic candour. We see 
the " verray perfight gentil knight " in cassock and 
coat of mail, with his curly-headed squire beside 
him, fresh as the May morning, and behind them 
the brown-faced yeoman in his coat and hood of 
green, with the good bow in his hand. A group 
of ecclesiastics light up for us the medieval Church 
— the brawny, hunt-loving monk, whose bridle 
jingles as loud and clear as the chapel-bell ; the 
wanton friar, first among the beggars and harpers 
of the country side ; the poor parson, threadbare, 
learned and devout ; the summoner, with his fiery 



128 TYPES OF PILGRIMS 

face; the pardoner, with his wallet "bret-fuU of 
pardons, come from Rome all hot " ; the lively 
prioress with her courtly French lisp, her soft, 
little red mouth, and " Amor vincit omnia " graven 
on her brooch. Learning is there in the portly 
person of the doctor of physic, rich with the 
profits of the pestilence ; the busy serjeant-of-law, 
"that ever seemed busier than he was"; the 
hollow-cheeked clerk of Oxford, with his love 
of books, and short, sharp sentences that disguise 
a latent tenderness which breaks out at last in 
the story of Griseldis. Around them crowd types 
of English industry : the merchant ; the franklin, 
in whose house " it snowed of meat and drink " ; 
the sailor fresh from frays in the Channel ; the 
buxom wife of Bath ; the broad-shouldered miller ; 
the haberdasher, carpenter, weaver, dyer, tapestry- 
maker, each in the livery of his craft ; and last, 
the honest ploughman, who would dyke and delve 
for the poor without hire. 

All these types we can picture as they journeyed 
over the rough and almost impassable roads of 
medieval England. For the roads and bridges 
were indeed of the most hopeless description ; 
moreover, they w^ere infested with beggars of 
every kind, robbers and banditti lay in wait 



WAYSIDE INNS 129 

for the unwary, the forests were filled with 
outlaws, ready to slay the pilgrim and plunder 
the solitary merchant. Fortunately, there were 
plenty of inns on all the main roads, though 
they must have been rough and uncomfortable. 

"William," advises a traveller who has had a 
disturbed night at one of these wayside inns, 
"William, undress and wash your legs, and then 
dry them with a cloth, and rub them well for 
love of the fleas, that they may not leap on your 
legs, for there is a pack of them lying in the dust 
under the rushes. Hi 1 the fleas bite me so ! " 

Here, notwithstanding dirt and discomfort, way- 
farers supped and slept, pursuing their journey at 
daybreak. In addition to the inns there were 
ale-houses by the road side, indicated by a long 
stake on which hung a garland or bush, giving 
rise to the proverb " Good wine needs no bush." 
Here was much drinking and merry-making, and 
though no spirits were as yet invented, the 
atmosphere and conviviality remind one of the 
modern public-house. " Many come here," says 
a woman writer of the times, "in order to drink, 
and they spend here, 'tis perfectly true, more than 
they have gained all day." 

With such roads, it is small wonder that even 
10 



130 CUMBROUS CARRIAGES 

Kings preferred making their journeys on horse- 
back to using the cumbrous and awkward 
vehicles w^hich constituted the carriages of these 
days. They were mounted on four wheels and 
drawn by several horses harnessed in a row, or 
two and two in teams, ridden by postilions with 
short, many-thonged whips and spurs. From the 
solid beams of wood which rested on the axles 
rose a framework like an archway, rounded in 
the manner of a painted and gilded tunnel. 
The inside was hung with tapestry, on the 
wooden seats were embroidered cushions, and 
the square windows were hung with silk cur- 
tains. Inside this cumbrous vehicle sat the 
unfortunate ladies, whose fate it was to move 
in state from one place to another. With 
groaning wheels, the heavy machine advanced 
by fits and starts, now descending into rotten 
hollows, now in peril of capsizing over some 
uneven surface, now sticking altogether in the 
deep mire, or splashing through some low-lying 
part of the road flooded by a neighbouring stream. 
No wonder they mostly preferred riding on 
horseback to sitting in these cumbrous carnages 
for any long distance. The woman of the period 
loved the open air and was an undoubted addition 



EQUALITY OF SEXES 131 

to the merry parties on horseback that wended 
their way ceaselessly along the bad roads either 
on pilgrimage or for purposes of merchandise. 
Indeed, the equality of the sexes is a character- 
istic feature of the Middle Ages. Men and 
women from the cradle to the grave shared life 
equally and naturally, neither was there any 
idea at this time of debarring them from taking 
their part in public affairs. Boys and girls were 
educated together, they had their games in 
common ; together they hunted, together they 
went shooting. It was also an age of romance, 
of love-making and of great immorality, for 
the which both sexes were punished equally. 
Women took part in the pilgrimages ; they took 
their place in the growing world of trade. 
They were members of the old social and 
religious gilds established for good fellowship 
during life, for due burial, prayers, and Masses 
after death, and the charitable assistance of 
needy survivors. Thus the Gild of Corpus 
Christi, Hull, was founded in the fourteenth 
century by eighteen men and twenty-five women, 
while the Gild of the Holy Cross, Stratford- 
on-Avon, had half its members men, and half 
women. The Trades Gilds also admitted 



132 POSITION OF WOMEN 

women as sisters, with equal rights with the 
men : they could wear the livery, take appren- 
tices, and sit at the election feasts; they be- 
longed to the Drapers' Company, the Brewers' 
Company, the Fishmongers, Weavers, Grocers, 
and Stationers. Neither do they seem to have 
abused this right in the Middle Ages. For any 
fraud they took their place with the men in the 
stocks ; for any insubordination they were 
apparently still beaten by their husbands. Again, 
women and noblewomen of position and property 
could be Marshals, High Constables, Sheriffs, 
patrons of livings, peeresses in their own right, 
and as such liable to be called to Parliament 
in person ; they might be burgesses — in fact, they 
had full municipal and parliamentary rights. 
Thus the spirit and letter of Magna Charta were 
carried out simply and naturally by our medieval 
ancestors : " To none will we sell, to none will we 
deny, to none will we delay the right of justice.' 

This inclusion of women in the public life of 
the nation did not preclude women from taking 
their part in household matters. They were the 
family nurses and doctors : they knew what herbs 
to use in cases of cut fingers, bruises, and small 
ailments ; they could all spin and embroider and 



END OF THE MIDDLE AGES 133 

knit. Some of them, too, were fairly accomplished 
in the arts of painting and music, professions 
hitherto restricted to the clergy. 

Even as the fifteenth century dies, we find the 
power of the clergy waning. The early Mystery 
and Miracle Plays, drawn from Scripture and 
the legends of the saints for the instruction and 
amusement of the people, had degenerated into 
the Morality Play, which, though professedly 
religious in character, had departed from the old 
earnestness of earlier days. The plays reflect the 
life of the period, being personifications of the 
vices and virtues of the age, rudely represented 
and coarsely conceived. 

If the Middle Ages die away in a wail of 
sadness, if the rude manners, low morality, coarse 
tastes, and gross ignorance of the people seem 
in strong contrast with the influence of the 
Medieval Church, it must be remembered that 
degeneration invariably precedes renaissance, that 
the darkest hour is before the dawn, and that 
a new life was about to burst over England, 
pregnant with a new morality, a new refinement 
of tastes, a new enthusiasm for learning, and a 
more generous interpretation of the needs of 
humanity by the Church of England. 



CHAPTER XI 

Circa 1509 — 1547 

LIFE UNDER HENRY VIII 

"Let me review the scene, 
And summon from the shadowy Past 
The forms that once have been." 

Longfellow. 

WE turn from the period of the Middle Ages, 
with its tyrannies and trammels, its 
bondage and blindness, its mental stagnation and 
spirit of superstition, with feelings akin to those 
which ushered in the new era of the wondrous 
sixteenth century. It is like turning from the 
darkness of night to the morning sunshine, if 
we allow the period under Henry VII. as the 
breaking of the dawn and the Elizabethan era 
as the noontide of triumphant glory. This is not 
the place to repeat the charming story of the 
Renaissance, that movement which marks the 

135 



136 KENAISSANCE 

transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern 
World, or to dwell on the spirit of the time which 
witnessed the liberation of reason and gave rise 
to that passionate recognition of humanity — that 
escape, " at first hesitating and then triumphant, 
from a circumscribed life of ecclesiastical tradition 
into "joyous freedom and unfettered spontaneity." 
It is not the intellectual side of the New Birth 
that concerns us here : there was movement 
everywhere, affecting every sphere of life. The 
awakening of the nation meant new energy in 
every department — an energy that was daily 
gaining strength under Tudor rule. A new 
England was shaping itself — Englishmen had 
broken with tradition ; they questioned where once 
they were dumb ; they were filled with new hopes, 
new desires, new ideas. But if men were thirst- 
ing after a wider knowledge, they were still as 
boisterous and merry as in the olden times ; if 
they were ready to educate their children more 
effectually, they were still keen on festivities, 
shows, masques, revels, public processions and 
tournaments ; if they reasoned within themselves 
on matters of State and reform, they were just 
as unreasoning as heretofore on matters of dress. 
Thus the age that saw the great Reform9>.tiQO 



RICHNESS OF DRESS 137 

witnessed the Field of the Cloth of Gold : the 
same King who encouraged the new learning 
set his people an example of every kind of 
extravagance. In one year he spent ;^5,ooo on 
silks and velvets, and during his reign banquets 
and pageants reached the summit of luxury. 
Familiar enough is the description of Henry VHL 
at the famous Field of the Cloth of Gold, from 
which he returned "all safe in body but empty 
in purse." " His grace — the most goodliest Prince 
that ever reigned over the Realme of England — 
was apparelled in a garment of Clothe of Silver, 
of Damaske, ribbed with Clothe of Gold, so thick 
as might be ; the garment was large and plited 
verie thicke and canteled of verie good intaile, 
of suche shape and makyng, that it was marveil- 
lous to beholde." What the King did the people 
did, then as now. When Wolsey became Chan- 
cellor of the kingdom, his gorgeous dress rivalled 
that of the King himself He wore silks and 
satins of the finest texture dyed a rich crimson, 
his shoulders were covered by a tippet of costly 
sables, his gloves were of red silk, his hat was 
scarlet, his shoes were silver gilt inlaid with pearls 
and diamonds. His retinue consisted of some 
800 persons, his very cook wore a velvet jerkin 



138 HAIK-DRESSma 

with a chain of gold about his neck. The ward- 
robe of every gentleman was full of furs, frills and 
feathers ; there were doublets of cloth of gold, 
gowns of rich velvet, coats of crimson satin, hose 
of crimson, fur-lined hoods, rings and brooches, 
chains of gold and jewelled caps, broad-toed shoes 
with huge Tudor ribbon roses on the instep. 
Indeed, the servants had much ado to tie up the 
many points of their master's hose, to lace his 
doublet and to arrange the frilled shirt to his 
satisfaction. It was well-nigh impossible for a 
sixteenth-century gentleman to dress alone : all 
his garments were laced and tied together — even 
his sleeves were often l^ced to show his fine lawn 
shirt beneath, dainty ruffles of which appeared 
at the wrist. Low velvet hats with large plumes 
were introduced by the King, who also insisted 
on his courtiers cutting off their hair, which they 
had worn long and lavishly dressed for some time 
past. Indeed, an almost effeminate vanity charac- 
terised the men of the time, specially with regard 
to hair-dressing : — 

"I knyt yt up all the nyght 
And the day time kemb it down ryght, 
And then yt cryspeth and shyneth as bryght 
As any pyrled gold," 

says an old ballad. 



EXTKAYAGANCE OF DRESS 139 

Ladies, on the other hand, now let their 
hair flow over their shoulders from beneath little 
gold nets, which they wore on their heads like 
caps. The tall head-dress had given way to 
a diamond-shaped gear, which in its turn was 
superseded by a close linen cap, projecting forward 
with a lappet hanging down behind, allowing the 
hair to be seen. Dresses fitted closely, being cut 
low in the neck. Very often they were looped 
up all round, a fashion which prepared the way 
for the full gathered skirt of Elizabethan times. 
Thus it would seem that at this period the women 
were more moderate in their dress than the men. 

" I think no realme in the worlde . . . doth so 
much in the vanity of their apparell as the Englysh 
men do at thys present," says a contemporaryv 
writer. " Theyr cote must be made after the Italian 
fashion, theyr cloke after the use of the Spanyards, 
their gowne after the manner of the Turks, their 
cappe muste be of the Frenche fashion, and at 
the laste theyr dagarde must be Scottish, wyth 
a Venetian tassel of sylke. . . . O what a monster 
and a beaste of manye heads is the Englyshe 
now become. To whom maie he be compared 
worthely, but to Esoppes crow ? For, as the crow 
decked hys selfe wyth the fethers of all kynde 



140 PAGEANTS 

of byrdes to make hys selfe beautifull, even so 
doeth the vaine Englyshman, for the fonde ap- 
parelyng of hymselfe, borrow of every nation to 
set forth hymselfe galaunt in the face of the 
world." 

Extravagance in dress was but one item of 
the reckless expenditure and love of display which 
characterised this period. The pageants which 
had existed from quite early times were a special 
feature of the sixteenth century. Full of dramatic 
elements, together with moralities, interludes, and 
masques, these pageants were the forerunners of 
the drama, which was to arise in all its glory 
before the century had died away. 

Though full of fanciful suggestion, they would 
seem tame spectacles compared with modern 
ideas of amusement. The pageant was drawn 
before the spectators by two beasts, perhaps a 
lion flourished all over with gold damask and 
an antelope with silver damask and tusks of gold, 
ridden by ladies richly clad, and led by men 
covered all over with green silk. Chained to the 
animals by golden chains was a forest scene : 
the forest was full of trees and flowers, fern and 
grass, made of green velvet, damask and silk, 
in the midst of which stood six foresters in coats 



SIN OF IDLENESS 141 

and hoods of green velvet. There, too, stood 
a golden castle, before the gate of which sat 
a man making a garland of roses, as a prize 
for the victor of the joust which would follow. 
As this strange spectacle — a compound of the 
real and unreal — rested before the spectators, the 
six foresters blew their horns, the forest opened, 
and out stepped four armed knights ready to 
fight. 

Equally extravagant were the huge banquets 
given in this reign. The "glory of hospitality" 
was an Englishman's boast. For every man who 
chose to ask for it, there was free food and free 
lodging, though the latter might be but a mat 
of rushes in a spare corner of the hall. There 
was little fear of this privilege being abused, for 
suspicious characters might not wander at large 
in these days, and for any one who could not 
give a satisfactory account of himself there were 
the village stocks. For the sin of idleness our 
forefathers had no mercy ; they abhorred it as 
a vice which would undermine their sturdy 
commonwealth, as, indeed, it is undermining the 
England of to-day. An Act passed in 1531 de- 
creed that any person "being whole and mighty 
in body and able to labour," found begging, might 



142 TREATMENT OF UNEMPLOYED 

be arrested, and if unable to give a satisfactory- 
account of himself, he was brought to the nearest 
market town, tied to the end of a cart, stript of 
his clothes, and beaten with whips through the 
town, bleeding and ashamed, after which degrada- 
tion he was sent to his native place, on his oath 
to " put himself to labour, like a true man ought 
to do." If the "sturdy vagabond" were caught 
a third time in idleness, he was to suffer death 
"as an enemy to the commonwealth." Any 
child found idle was taken up by the parish 
officers and handed over to some tradesman or 
farmer to be taught ; if he refused or ran away, 
he was publicly whipped with rods, at the 
discretion of the justice of the peace. It is 
further interesting to remember that at this time 
private persons were forbidden to give money 
to beggars, though they might always give food. 
For the really deserving poor, two collectors 
were appointed by each parish, with a list of 
the needy and the parishioners. Their orders 
were to " gently ask and demand " regular weekly- 
payments from every man and woman on the 
register (Henry VIII. had added to the already 
existing coins a double sovereign, a half sovereign, 
a gold crown and half-crown). If any declined 



SUPPLY OF WOEK 143 

to subscribe, he was sent for and reprimanded 
by his parish priest, and if still obdurate, handed 
over to his Bishop. There was little spontaneity 
about the charity of these times. A day's work 
meant a day's work in the sixteenth century. 
From the middle of March to the middle of 
September, the work hours were from 5 a.m. to 
7 p.m., with half an hour for breakfast, an hour 
and a half for dinner and the mid-day sleep which 
was allowed from May to August, while in winter 
the work hours were from sunrise to sunset. 

To supply work for all was the duty of 
the State, and to this end we find abundant 
legislation, and the faint shadow of Protection 
creeping over the country. " The King's High- 
ness," runs one Act, " calling to his most 
blessed remembrance the great number of idle 
people daily increasing throughout this his Realm, 
supposeth that one cause thereof is by the 
continued bringing into the same the great 
number of wares and merchandise made and 
brought out and from the parts beyond the sea 
into this Realm, ready wrought by manual 
occupation ; amongst which is linen cloth of 
divers sorts." Seeing then that his people buy 
ready-made linen, instead of spinning and 



144 TRAINED TO ARMS 

weaving it themselves, "to the high displeasure 
of Almighty God, great diminution of the King's 
people and extreme ruin, decay, and impoverish- 
ment of this Realm. . . . Therefore for reforma- 
tion of these things . . . and to avoid that most 
abominable sin of idleness out of the Realm," 
every person occupying land shall, for every 
sixty acres under plough, sow one quarter of an 
acre in flax and hemp. Thus care was taken 
to make every Englishman contribute his share 
of work to the common weal. 

It must be remembered that every English- 
man at this time was trained to arms, ready 
equipped for fighting with arms corresponding 
to his rank, though there was no regular army 
or uniform for soldiers. The law which in the 
thirteenth century enacted that every man from 
fifteen to sixty should bear arms, from bows and 
arrows to swords and daggers, still held good. 
Shooting was the common amusement of the 
people; every village had its pair of butts, and 
on Sundays and holidays all able-bodied men 
were required to appear in the field "as valiant 
Englishmen ought to do." But in the early 
part of the sixteenth century the people were 
growing slack : they played their games of bowls, 



SHOOTING— A NATIONAL PASTIME 145 

quoits and dice, instead of practising their bows 
and arrows, until the King, who was the best 
rider and the best archer in England, set him- 
self to " brace again the slackened sinews of the 
nation." He ordained that every man, "with but 
few exceptions, under the age of sixty must have 
bows and arrows " ready continually in his house, 
to use himself in shooting " ; that every boy 
from seven to seventeen must learn to shoot, 
possessing a bow and two arrows, and after 
seventeen a bow and four arrows. Certain it is 
that at this time Englishmen were a " sturdy, 
high-hearted race, sound in body and fierce in 
spirit, and furnished with thews and sinews 
which, under the stimulus of those great shins 
of beef — their common diet — were the wonder 
of the age." "What comyn folk in all this 
world ... is so mighty, so strong in the felde, 
as the comyns of England ? " says a proud writer 
in 1515. 

Strong indeed must our forefathers have been 
at this time, to have survived the insanitary 
conditions of their lives. The country during the 
sixteenth century was hardly ever free from out- 
breaks of the plague and " sweating sickness," 
partly owing to the "filthiness of the streets 

11 



146 MEDICAL TREATMENT 

and the sluttishness within doors," says Erasmus, 
writing after his first visit to this country. " The 
floors are commonly of clay, strewed with rushes, 
so renewed that the substratum may be unmolested 
for twenty years, with an ancient collection of 
beer, grease, fragments, bones, spittle, and every- 
thing that is nasty." This horrid mess was 
utilised by the sixteenth-century doctors, who 
professed to cure what they diagnosed as a 
" stitch in the side " by taking a well trodden 
clod of this refuse, making it into a cake with 
vinegar, well toasted, and clapping it on to the 
side. Other old prescriptions show that medicine 
had made very little progress. 

" If a man were become verye weake and 
feable by reason of a longe sicknesse, even that 
he seemeth to be consumed, nether can recover, 
then take twentye olde cockes, dresse and dighte 
them as though they should be eaten, seth them 
in the thyrde part of a tonne of water, stampe 
them in a morter, so that the bones be al to 
brused, make a bath therewyth and let hym 
bathe therein." Yet more inadequate are some 
other prescriptions. For headache, the patient 
is ordered to roll up and down on his tongue 
while fasting, a mixture of pepper and mustard 



THE PLAGUE 147 

about the size of a bean, in order to draw the 
evil humours out of the head into the mouth ! 

Small wonder that the doctors were paralysed 
when confronted with the plague, though some 
sort of quarantine was now observed for the 
first time. The door of an infected house was 
marked with a wisp, which developed later into 
St. Anthony's cross painted on a small piece 
of canvas, together with the words " Lord have 
mercy upon us." If it were necessary for a 
member of the infected house to go out of 
doors, he had to carry in his hand a white rod 
for forty days, while the penalty for concealment 
of the plague was death, " the man to be hangit, 
the woman drownit." 

So far, then, in this age of contradictions, there 
seems to have been but little material progress in 
the social lives of our forefathers ; it was a period 
still " instinct with vast animal life, robust health 
and muscular energy, terrible in its rude and 
unrefined appetites, its fi \y virtues and fierce 
passions." 

"It was merry in England before the new 
learning came up," said the people; but to that 
new learning and the vast changes it wrought 
it is interesting now to turn. 



CHAPTER XII 

Circa 1509 — 1558 

THE NEW WORSHIP 

" For, indeed, a change was coming upon the world . . . 
the paths trodden by the footsteps of ages were broken up ; 
old things were passing away and the faith and life of ten 
centuries was dissolving like a dream." — Froude. 

WHEN the frail little nine-year-old son of 
Henry VIII. succeeded to the throne of 
England in 1 547, the great change in the worship 
of our forefathers had already begun. How 
momentous and far-reaching a change this was, 
all students of the Reformation well know. The 
severance, already accomplished, of the Church of 
England from allegiance to the Church of Rome, 
with all it entailed, swept away those habits of life 
and thought to which Englishmen had grown 
accustomed for the last ten centuries. No more 
would they ride off on those sociable and 

149 



150 BOOK OF COMMON PEAYER 

picturesque pilgrimages to the shrines of St. 
Thomas of Canterbury or Our Lady of Walsing- 
ham, for pilgrimages played no part in the re- 
formed worship. Moreover, the shrine itself had 
been despoiled, the sacred bones of St. Thomas 
scattered to the wind, and his name erased from 
the new Church calendar, while the famous 
miracle-working image of " Our Lady " had been 
likewise destroyed. No longer were they required 
to murmur their prayers in the Latin tongue, as 
heretofore, for in Edward's reign they were pro- 
vided with the now familiar Book of Common 
Prayer, they had a collection of hymns compiled 
by Miles Coverdale, and a great Bible translated 
into the English tongue was chained, by law, some- 
where in every church, so that all who could might 
read it for themselves. The parish churches them- 
selves, so thickly planted over the country that no 
land in Europe could compare with them for 
number — the pride of the people, the joy of past 
generations, glorious with offerings from rich 
and poor, with shrine and image — these were 
now robbed and confiscated to swell the Royal 
treasury. 

Neither was this all. The famous Abbeys and 
smaller monasteries that had arisen throughout 



DESTRUCTION OF MONASTERIES 151 

the country during the past ten centuries had 
likewise been ruined, till out of some two hundred 
and fifty religious houses, not one was at the last 
left in England. True, the inmates had for the 
most part lost much of their old enthusiasm and 
religious fervour : luxury and wealth had bred 
vice and immorality within their walls, but to the 
King of England they were "garrisons of the 
Pope" within his realm, stout upholders of the 
traditions that he wished to set aside, and strong 
opponents to his wishes. Moreover, they had 
rich lands and stores of treasure which were 
sorely needed to meet the King's increasing 
expenditure. Though for the most part men 
succumbed to what they deemed the Inevitable, 
and, " stupid in their despair," left their monasteries 
at the King's command, yet there were those who 
were ready to die for the faith they held to be 
more, precious than life itself Amid the prevail- 
ing gloom we see " gallant men whose high forms, 
the sunset of the old faith, stand transfigured on 
the horizon, tinged with the light of its dying 
glory." The old Abbot of Glastonbury — infirm 
and broken — hangs on the gallows erected on the 
Tor overlooking his once famous Abbey on a 
bleak November morning in 1539, strong in his 



152 CARTHUSIANS 

courage, firm in his faith. We call to mind 
pathetic scenes in connection with the Carthusians 
of the Charterhouse, men still earnest in their high 
ideals, their piety and devotion. They had not 
lost the old simplicity and asceticism of ten 
centuries ago, and their refusal to acknowledge 
that Henry VHI. was Supreme Head of the 
Church of England on earth was the signal for 
their doom. Some were hanged, some cast into 
prison, where they were chained in an upright 
position for the space of thirteen days, after which 
they were executed. After the monasteries were 
suppressed and some 9,000 friars, monks, and nuns 
cast adrift, wanton destruction of property took 
place : chalices of gold and silver, embroidered 
stuffs, illuminated books and missals, bells, images 
— the very lead from the roof was seized, and 
only the lonely moss-covered walls speak to us 
to-day of the departed glory of a bygone age. 

With the suppression of the monasteries came 
the closing of many schools in connection with 
them. But the grammar schools of Edward VI. 
are still famous in many provincial towns, and 
it is a fact of no mean significance that between 
the years 1509 and 1553 over one hundred schools 
were opened in England. Notwithstanding this, 



HARSH TREATMENT OF CHILDREN 153 

the education of our forefathers was still very crude 
and scanty, and the period of their childhood very 
unhappy. There was little parental display of 
affection. The poor apprenticed their children at 
the age of seven, away from home if possible, and 
the wealthy sent their boys and girls to be brought 
up in the houses of strangers from a very tender 
age. " On enquiring their reason for this severity, 
they answered that they did it, in order that their 
children might learn better manners. But I, for 
my part," says a contemporary, " believe that they 
do it, because they like to enjoy all their comforts 
themselves, and that they are better served by 
strangers than they would be by their own 
children." Not that a sixteenth-century father 
felt any scruples about beating his own child. 
Sir Peter Carew was leashed like a dog and 
coupled to a hound by his father for playing 
truant at school. 

The birch played a large part in the bringing up 
of children. " It serveth for many good uses," says 
Dr. Turner, " and for none better than for betyng 
of stubborne boys that ether lye or wyll not learn." 
It was the general opinion of the age that the 
best schoolmaster was the greatest beater, and 
many a story is told of Nicholas Udal, the famous 



154 SCHOOL LIFE 

Eton master. One of his boy pupils has recorded 
his miseries in verse : 

"From Paul's I went, to Eton sent 
To learn straightways the Latin phrase ; 
Where fifty-three stripes given to me 
At once I had 

For fault but small or none at all, 
It came to pass, thus beat I was. 
See, Udal, see the mercy of thee 
To me, poor lad." 

But no mercy was forthcoming from those who 
had charge of the young. In vain Ascham pleads 
for gentleness and kindness in teaching children : 
" Learning is robbed of her best wits by the great 
beating," he cries sadly. 

Education was certainly not made attractive to 
the little grammar-school boys of these days. The 
tolling of a bell summoned him to school at 6 a.m. 
As the maids of the household were supposed to 
rise at three, presumably he had some breakfast 
of sorts — perhaps bread and ale — before he started, 
for he stayed at school till eleven. The school 
itself, we are told, was like a prison or dungeon, 
cold and bleak, bare and ugly ; and here the boy 
spent another four hours from one to five. Holi- 
days were always the same. They began on the 



PITILESS FLOGGING 155 

Wednesday before Christmas, Easter, and Whit- 
sunday, and lasted twelve days. There was 
no rush to the seaside for parents, children, and 
masters during the brief vacation. Scholars were 
required to attend daily from eight to nine and 
two to three, to repeat such lessons as the school- 
master deemed profitable for them. It is hard to 
realise the mass of useless information which was 
forced on the unfortunate boy — a barbarous Latin 
taught in a still more barbarous manner, freely 
interrupted with pitiless floggings to subdue the 
natural animal spirits of youth. " They went to 
the grammar school little children," says Ascham, 
"they came from thence great lubbers, always 
learning and little profiting : learning without 
book little or nothing," for " their whole knowledge 
of learning without a book was tied only to their 
tongue and lips, and never ascended up to the brain 
and head." At the University things were not 
more luxurious. " There be divers at Cambridge 
which rise daily about four or five of the clock in 
the morning, and from five till six of the clock use 
common prayer with an exhortation of God's 
word in a common chapel ; and from six until ten 
of the clock use ever either private study or 
common lectures. At ten of the clock they go to 



156 GIRLS' EDUCATION 

dinner, whereas they be content with a penny 
piece of beef among four, having pottage made of 
the broth of the same beef with salt and oatmeal, 
and nothing else. After this slender diet, they be 
either teaching or learning until five of the clock 
in the evening ; whereas they have supped not 
much better than their dinner. Immediately after 
which they go either to reasoning in problems or 
to some other study, until it be nine or ten of the 
clock ; and then being without fires, are fain to 
walk or run up and down half an hour to get a 
heat on their feet when they go to bed." Another 
glimpse of unhappy childhood is afforded us by 
Ascham. He found Lady Jane Grey indoors one 
day diligently reading Plato's " Phaedo," in Greek, 
at the age of thirteen, while her parents, together 
with the gentlemen and women of the household, 
were hunting in the park. In answer to a question 
why she was not hunting with the others, she 
replied smiling, with a wisdom beyond her years, 
" I wis all their sports in the park is but a shadow 
of that pleasure that I find in Plato. Alas, good 
folk, they never felt what true pleasure meant ! " 

"And how came you, madam," asked Ascham, 
" to this deep knowledge of pleasure ? " 

" I will tell you," said the girl. " One of the 



THE CLASSICS 157 

greatest benefits that ever God gave me is, that 
he sent me so sharp and severe parents and so 
gentle a schoolmaster. For when I am in 
presence either of father or mother, whether I 
speak, keep silence, sit, stand, or go, eat, drink, 
be merry or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing, 
or doing anything else; I must do it as it were 
in such weight, measure and number, even so 
perfectly as God made the world ; or else I am so 
sharply threatened — yea, presently sometimes with 
pinches, nips, and bobs and other ways (which 
I will not name for the honour I bear them), 
that I think myself in hell, till time come that 
I must go to Mr. Elmer; who teacheth me so 
gently, so pleasantly, with such fair allurements 
to learning that I think all the time nothing 
whiles I am with him. And when I am called 
from him I fall on weeping, because whatsoever 
I do else but learning is full of grief, trouble, 
and fear." 

Likewise the Princess Elizabeth so displeased 
her father that she was sent away from Court 
for a whole year, when he at last forgave her. 
The learning of the Princess Mary rivalled that 
of Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey. At the age 
of twelve she was " ripe in the Latin tongue," at 



158 THE GOOD HOUSEWIFE 

fourteen she spoke and wrote Greek with "in- 
credible skill," at fifteen she was beginning 
Hebrew. 

But in the humbler classes of life there was 
little time for women to cultivate themselves in 
the newly found classics. Even in this rushing 
age, we read breathlessly of the list of duties 
which were required of the "well conducted 
housewife" of these days. She had to spin, 
from the wool and flax produced on the farm, 
sufficient cloth and linen for the use of the family ; 
it was her duty to measure out the corn to be 
ground and send it to the miller ; the poultry, 
pigs, and cows were under her charge, and it fell 
to her lot to superintend the brewing and baking. 
The garden was under her, and on it she had 
to depend for herbs, long since given up, for 
medicinal use ; she had to look after the fruit 
trees and to see that plenty of wild strawberry 
roots were transplanted from the woods to be 
brought under cultivation. For, be it noted, 
Englishmen had just discovered the excellence 
of strawberries and cream. Further than this, 
an old writer tells us it was the wife's duty to 
make hay, drive the plough, and take to market 
the produce of dairy and poultry yard, rendering 



MARKET PRICES 159 

the accounts thereof to her husband. These 
were the days in which the yeoman farmer 
could sing : 

"Good bread and good drink, a good fire in the hall; 
Brawn, pudding, and sauce, and good mustard withal; 
Beef, mutton, and pork, shred pies of the best. 
Pig, veal, goose, and capon, and turkey well drest, 
Cheese, apples, and nuts, jolly carols to hear, 
As then in the country is counted good cheer." 

Picture the small farmer's wife going to the 
nearest market to sell her wares. Sometimes she 
would walk beside a heavily packed horse or 
mule, sometimes she would ride the animal 
harnessed into the most elementary farm cart. 
The distances were long, the roads were very 
bad, there were no umbrellas to shield her 
from the rain or sun. But once arrived at the 
market or fair, she would not hasten home, 
for there was a deal of gossip, when social 
intercourse was difficult to obtain and women's 
tongues as loose as they are to-day. The market 
prices were fixed by law. Thus in the year 1541 
a large fat hen cost /d.^ ; 100 eggs in summer 
IS. 2d., in winter is. 8d. ; butter was 3d., but 

* It must be remembered that the value of money was 
difEerent in these days. 



160 KISE OF PEICES 

sugar IS. 4d. ; a sack of coals cost lod., a pound 
of soap 8d., though this was not much in demand 
as yet, for the value of cleanliness was unproved. 
Prices were rising year by year. 

"Cannot you remember?" said a man of this 
period to his friend and neighbour, " within these 
thirty years, I could buy the best pig or goose 
that I could lay my hand on for 4d., which now 
costeth me double and triple the money? It is 
likewise in greater ware as in beef and mutton. 
I have seen a cap for 13d. as good as I can 
get now for 2s. 6d. ; of cloth ye have heard how 
the price is risen, how a pair of shoes cost 1 2d., 
yet in my time I have bought a better for 6d." 
Such is the plaint of human nature, which amid 
all the changes of the world remains ever the 
same. 



CHAPTER XIII 

Circa 1558 — 1603 

" MERRIE ENGLAND " 

"The very age and body of the time, his form and 
pressure." — Shakspere. 

T^ROM the necessarily serious attitude of our 
J- forefathers under the religious changes of 
the eariy Tudors, it is a relief to turn to the 
study of England under her first great Queen, to 
dream once again of that "merrie" country so 
fantastically described by Spenser, and to realise 
that 

"This happy breed of men, this little world. 
This precious stone set in the silver sea," 

so dramatically represented by Shakspere, re- 
sembles more closely than heretofore the England 
of to-day. 

The Middle Ages have gone for ever. Past is 

12 161 



162 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

the vision of glittering knights pricking over 
solitary plains, making their way through gloomy 
and pathless forests in lowering twilight to the 
relief of phantom ladies in distress ; gone is the 
splendid glow of colour; pierced at last is the 
impenetrable mist concealing the real humanity 
of our medieval ancestry. Individuals stand 
forth from the crowd, and at the head of all 
reigns the Maiden Queen, Elizabeth, ludicrous 
perhaps in her artificiality, but very human, 
frivolous, and fanciful. She knew — who better ? — 
the temper of her people; she was ready to 
encourage their enterprise, to smile compas- 
sionately at their devotion, to reward, however 
shabbily, their deeds of heroism and daring. 
Hence the Elizabethan age is one of restless 
energy and splendid achievement, tempered 
with unbounded courage and reckless daring. 
Once more the blood of the Viking was pas- 
sionately stirred, and across the tempestuous 
seas the Elizabethan explorer sailed to new 
lands and new scenes, in boats which showed 
no very marked advance on those in which our 
Saxon forefathers had approached our shores, 
some thousand years before. New worlds had 
opened before their astonished eyes, and with 



EXPLOREKS 163 

the delight of children they bounded forward to 
take possession of their new-found lands across 
the seas. The expeditions were full of danger, 
but faith in an omnipotent God steeled their 
spirits. Every explorer took the sacrament in his 
parish church before he set forth on his adven- 
tures, and his first act on landing in a strange 
country was to kneel in thanksgiving for his 
safe arrival in port. There were many who 
never returned home, and in days of few letters 
and no telegrams one can picture the anxiety of 
the eager throng that would crowd round the 
weather-beaten sailors — bronzed and bearded men 
with deep-set eyes and hollow cheeks — men who 
had seen strange sights and heard strange tales. 
Their ships were laden with gold dust and ingots 
of silver, pearls, emeralds, and diamonds ; they 
had negroes on board and Red Indians, crocodile 
skins, chattering monkeys, and gorgeous-hued 
parrots. "The little world had become . . . 
inconceivably large." 

Wealth increased by leaps and bounds, and 
commerce began that more rapid development 
which till the end of the Victorian era made 
England supreme among nations. London, too 
was becoming the wonder of the world, " a large 



164 ADVANCE OF COMMERCE 

excellent, and mighty city of business, and the 
most important in the whole kingdom," as a 
foreigner truly remarked after a residence in this 
country. " Most of the inhabitants are employed 
in buying and selling merchandise, and trading in 
almost every corner of the world, since the river 
is most useful and convenient for this purpose, 
considering that ships from France, the Nether- 
lands, Sweden, Denmark, Hamburg, and other 
kingdoms, come almost up to the city, to which 
they convey goods and take away others in 
exchange. One can scarcely pass along the 
streets on account of the throng." When Queen 
Elizabeth ascended the throne the commercial 
centre of the world was Antwerp ; when she died 
the commercial centre was London. The open- 
ing of the Royal Exchange — the gift of a rich 
merchant — by the Queen herself marks the com- 
mercial progress of the day. Foreign merchants, 
picturesque in their native costumes, brought 
their wares to the new " Burse." At six o'clock 
in the morning a bell rang from the lofty tower, 
summoning all together for the day's work. 
New luxuries found their way into the country, 
amongst which may be mentioned apricots, 
turkeys, hops, tobacco, and potatoes. New 



INCREASE OF COMFORT 165 

manufactures sprang up in England, and for 
the first time we find such things as pins, 
needles, shoe buckles, tacks, paper, fans, and 
wigs being made in this country. This is no 
place to speak fully of the great woollen industry 
that grew apace in the Eastern Counties, of 
the increase in dyeing and spinning, or the 
fame of English wool. The results are directly 
visible in the lives of the people. Shopkeepers, 
merchants, farmers, manufacturers, all grew rich 
and prosperous, and an increase of comfort and 
luxury in ordinary life was the natural outcome 
of the new energy. Yet wise men shook their 
heads over the growth of luxury, even as they do 
to-day. That it would "eat out the hardihood 
of the people" was their growing anxiety, for in 
the increase of comfort they saw the signs of 
England's decay. 

" We see the change," cries one, "for when our 
houses were builded of willow, then had we oken 
men ; but now that our houses are come to be 
made of oke, our men are not onlie become 
willow, but a great many altogether of straw, 
which is a sore alteration. Now have we manie 
chimneys and yet our tenderlings complaine 
of rheums, catarrhs, and poses. Then had we 



166 TUDOR PALACES 

none but reredosses and our heads did never 
ake." 

" England spendeth more on wines in one 
year than it did in ancient times in four years," 
grumbled another. The increase of luxury has 
undoubtedly its dangers, but there are degrees 
of luxury after all, and one can hardly regret the 
substitution of chimneys for the open hearth, of 
carpets for the stale rushes with their accompany- 
ing accumulations of dirt, of forks for fingers, not 
to mention items which to-day are considered 
necessaries rather than luxuries, as nightgowns, 
potatoes, and toothbrushes. 

If the great feudal household was a creation of 
the past, and the hall no longer found the lord 
and his lady sitting at board with their army of 
feudal retainers, yet the Elizabethan household 
was an immense affair. The sixteenth century 
was the era of palaces, spacious and stately 
buildings, where open hospitality still reigned as 
in the bygone days, though the old simplicity of 
life had past. Elaborate and complicated were 
these Tudor palaces, with their fretted fronts and 
gilded turrets, their picturesque gables and castel- 
lated gateways. The foreign element was as 
visible in Elizabethan architecture as in every- 



ELABORATION 167 

thing else Elizabethan. Everything was orna- 
mented, nothing was plain. Outside and inside 
there was carving, painting, sculpture, and needle- 
work. Turrets, gables, and domes were decorated, 
brick chimneys were elaborately carved, towers 
were surmounted with carved figures, roofs were 
castellated, and oriel windows ridiculously exag- 
gerated. From the narrow and draughty Gothic 
loophole of the past the sixteenth-century archi- 
tect turned to an almost painful extreme of 
glaring light. We hear of a window with 3,200 
panes of glass in it, and remember Lord Bacon's 
warning, "You shall have sometimes fair houses 
so full of glass that one cannot tell where to be 
out of the sun or cold." From these windows the 
wealthy English owner could look out on to his 
newly laid out garden, with its stately terrace, its 
broad flights of steps, its vases and fountains, 
mazes and grass plots, its yew hedges in gro- 
tesque shapes. The primitive medieval garden, 
which had developed into the pleasure garden 
of the early Tudors, had now grown into the 
formal old English garden of the Elizabethan 
era. The architect who designed the house, as 
a matter of course in those days, designed the 
garden also. In front lay the wide terrace, from 



168 FOKMAL GARDENS 

which a flight of steps led to broad, straight walks, 
intersected with flower-beds geometric in form. 
The patterns harmonised with the details of 
architecture ; the tracery surmounting the Eliza- 
bethan house found its counterpart in the design 
of the flower-beds. The garden was square 
"because it doth best agree with a man's dwell- 
ing," and bounded by a high brick wall, often 
covered with rosemary and "divers sweet smell- 
ing plants." But the old formal garden is too 
well known to need description, for it has many 
imitations in these modern days. Familiar in 
our minds are the quaint yew hedges fantasti- 
cally clipped, the "covert walks" and "shade 
alleys " formed by intertwining willows and wych 
elms, where " one might walk twoe myle . . , 
before he came to their ends." Familiar the maze 
set with privet, some six feet high, with lavender, 
marjoram, or thyme, and cut into "meanders, 
circles, semicircles, windings, and intricate turn- 
ings, the walks or intervals whereof are all grass 
plots " ; familiar the fair fountains with their 
marble sculpture, Neptune and his horses, Thetis 
and her dolphins, Triton and his fishes, with 
water spurting vehemently upwards. Indeed 
these fountains gave rise to many a practical 



THE POTATO 169 

joke, for it was a favourite pastime to order the 
gardener at a distance to turn a wheel, which, 
forcing the water through a number of Httle 
pipes, played upon the ladies standing by so as 
to wet them thoroughly from "top to toe." 

On another side of the house lay the kitchen 
or cook's garden, no longer given up entirely to 
herbs as of yore. Here grew melons, gourds, 
cucumbers, radishes, parsnips, carrots, turnips, and 
salad herbs, for these were no longer the food of 
the " poor commons," but to be found henceforth 
at the "tables of delicate merchants, gentlemen and 
the nobility." Hence more care was given to 
their cultivation. But by far the most important 
addition to the kitchen garden was the potato, 
now brought back from the New World for the 
first time, " thicke, fat and tuberous," some round 
as a ball, some oval or egg fashion, some longer 
and others shorter, which " knobbie rootes are 
fastened into the stalkes with an infinite number 
of threddie strings." Such was the potato of 
these days ; it was cooked, " either rosted in the 
embers, or boiled and eaten with oile, vinegar and 
pepper, or dressed any other way by the hand of 
some cunning in cookery." 

The Elizabethan orchard, which "takes away 



170 ENJOYMENT OF GAEDENS 

the tediousness and heavie load of three or four 
score years," was usually to the east side of the 
flower garden, so that the fruit trees might shelter 
the tender plants, while tall forest trees in their 
turn sheltered the fruit trees. The newly im- 
ported *' apricocke " was carefully tended on the 
south wall with peaches and nectarines ; quinces 
and plums were grown on the west, spread up and 
fastened to the walls by the help of tacks, now 
used for the first time. In front of the wall fruit 
was usually a path bordered with low trained 
fruit trees, cherries, gooseberries, pippins and 
currants — a sort of wild grape — while between the 
raspberries and currants the ground was "powdered 
with strawberries." What a joy these gardens 
were to our forefathers is well expressed by a 
contemporary writer : "A garden then so appointed 
as wherein aloft upon sweet shadowed walk of 
terrace, in heat of summer, to feel the pleasant 
whisking wind above or delectable coolness of 
the fountain spring beneath ; to taste of delicious 
strawberries, of sweet odours, breathing from the 
plants, herbs and flowers ; to hear such natural 
melodious musick and tunes of birds, to have in 
eye, for mirth, sometime there under springing 
streams, then, the woods, the waters, the deer, the 



FLOWERS INDOORS 171 

people, the fruit trees, the plants, the herbs, the 
flowers, the change in colours, the birds fluttering, 
the fountain streaming, the fish swimming, all in 
such delectable variety, order, dignity ; whereby 
at one moment, in one place, at hand, without 
travel, to have so full fruition of so many of 
God's blessings, worthy to be called Paradise." 

Neither can one forget Spenser's joyous voice 
singing— 

"Bring hether the Pinke and purple Cullambine 
With Gelliflowers; 
Bring Coronations and Sops in wine, 
Worn of Paramowers ; 

Strowe me the ground with Daffadowndillies 
And Cowslips and Kingcups and loved Lillies," 

Indoors, too, flowers abounded. In summer 
time the chimneys were trimmed with banks of 
moss and a white flower "called everlasting." 
"Their chambers and parlours strawed over with 
sweete herbs refreshed me," says a Dutch 
traveller in 1 560. " Their nosegays finely inter- 
mingled with sundry sorts of fragrant flowers 
in their bed-chambers with comfortable smell, 
cheered me up and entirely delighted my senses." 

But flowers were a small detail of the luxuries 
which filled the inside of Elizabethan houses. 



172 TUDOR BEDS 

The great hall of feudal fame, now robbed of its 
ancient importance, was merely the stately ap- 
proach to a wide and decorated staircase, leading 
to magnificent banqueting rooms and endless wide 
galleries, which were hung with rich tapestries 
and embroideries, and adorned with cloths of gold 
and silver, with some few pictures of Royal 
personages carefully tended behind little curtains. 
Long passages led to suites of gorgeous bedrooms 
occupied by huge four-post beds — the glory of 
the Tudors. The massive pillars reaching to the 
ceiling, richly carved and gilded, bore a weight 
of heavy hangings, often edged with gold and 
silver lace, caught up at intervals with long loops 
and buttons. Over the feather bed, the blankets, 
and the sheets lay a gorgeous silk and satin 
coverlet, embroidered in Venetian gold, with 
silver spangles, and lined with foreign silks of 
glorious hues. Then there were seats with 
quilted cushions, inlaid cabinets shining with gold 
and silver and precious stones, basins of silver 
"filled at convenient times with sweete and 
pleasaunt waters." Thus Imogen's bedroom : 



"Her bed-chamber was hanged 
With tapestry of silk and silver, . . , 



FIRST NIGHTGOWNS 173 

A piece of work 
So bravely done, so rich, that it did strive 
In workmanship and value. . . . 

The chimney-piece 
Chaste Dian bathing. . . . 

The roof o' the chamber 
With golden cherubims is fretted," 

Nor must we omit the looking-glass, a product 
of this century, often framed in copper and gilt 
and bordered with gems or velvet. 

All this outward show was a direct result of 
the sudden contact, with other countries. Luxuries 
and comforts hitherto undreamt of found their 
way into England and completely rev^olutlonised 
the social life of the people. And yet, with all 
this increase of comfort, it is strange to find that 
a great many of the common necessities of modern 
life were still entirely absent. Thus, it has been 
noted, in the absence of soap, clothes were washed 
with cow-dung, hemlock and nettles, which gave 
them such a disagreeable savour that we are 
not surprised at the exclamation of an English- 
man of the age, " I cannot abide to weare them 
on my bodie." A clean shirt was a luxury, not 
a necessity, as it is to-day. Nightgowns were only 
just invented. The Queen's first nightgown was 
made of black velvet with lace of murrey silk and 



174 ELIZABETHAN DRESS 

gold, lined with fur, and one smiles at her order 
for the delivery of fourteen yards of murrey damask 
for the " making of a nyghtgowne for the Erie of 
Leycester." 

But this brings us to the subject of Elizabethan 
dress and a brief description of — 

"Silken coats and caps and golden rings, 
With ruffs and cuffs and farthingales and things, 
With scarfs and fans and double change of bravery. 
With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knavery.'* 



CHAPTER XIV 

Circa 1558 — 1603 

"MERRIE ENGLAND" (continued) 

"All the world's a stage, 
And all the men and women merely players." 

Shakspere 

THE same outward show and display of 
wealth that characterised the Elizabethan 
dwellings likewise characterised their dress. " Oh, 
how much cost is bestowed nowadays upon our 
bodies, and how little upon our souls !" laments the 
historian of the period. " How long time is asked 
in decking up of the first and how little space left 
wherein to feed the latter. How curious, how 
nice also, are a number of men and women, and 
how hardly can the tailor please them in fitting 
their bodies ! How many times must it be 
sent back again to him that made it! What 
chafing, what fretting, what reproachful language, 

175 



176 STIFF STYLE OF DRESS 

doth the poor workman bear away ! " Words that 
might be uttered to-day as well as three hundred 
years ago, yet they are not surprising if we examine 
for a moment the elaborate dress of the Elizabethan 
era. Artificiality reigned supreme. No regard 
was paid to the natural form of the body, but the 
whole figure was deformed by means of steel and 
whalebone. There were no more loose and flowing 
sleeves, no more trailing skirts with tight-fitting 
bodies, as in the past — all was rigid and stiff and 
uncomfortable as artifice could make it. And 
this was greatly admired by Englishmen in the 
sixteenth century : — 

" Her long slit sleeves, stiff e buske, puffe verdingall, 
Is all that makes her thus angelicall." 

The vanity of the Queen herself was proverbial, 
and the three thousand dresses found at her death 
bore witness to it. She would endure no criticism, 
and when the Bishop of London preached before 
her on the " vanitie of deckinge the bodie too 
finely," she remarked sternly, " If the Bishop held 
discourse on such matters she wolde fitte him for 
heaven, but he sholde walke thither without a 
staffe and leave his mantle behind him." 

Such being the case, fashions became more 



INTEODUCTION OF STARCH 177 

ludicrous and pronounced. The crinoline, appear- 
ing in France in 1530, soon made its way into 
England. It was first worn as a round petticoat 
stiffened with whalebone ; later it was distended at 
the hips till the circumference below the waist was 
greater than round the bottom, and formed a sort 
of table, on which the arms could rest. The upper 
part of the figure was squeezed into a stiff pointed 
bodice, involving severe compression and conse- 
quent discomfort. Round the neck was worn the 
famous ruff, so familiar to students of Elizabethan 
times. 

This was of Spanish origin. It began as a 
large slender collar of cambric, which grew larger 
and higher as time passed on, till the wearer found 
it so inconvenient, " flap-flapping " in the wind, 
that wires were inserted to hold it out from the 
neck. Six years after the accession of Queen 
Elizabeth, the ruff was re-organised by the intro- 
duction of starch, "the devil's liquor" as it was 
afterwards called by the Puritans. The wife of 
the Queen's Dutch coachman set up a clear- 
starching establishment in London, and soon had 
her hands so full of crumpled ruffs to stiffen and 
starch that she took pupils at five guineas each to 
learn the trade, which every good laundress to-day 
13 



178 HAIRDRESSING 

knows so well. The innovation was greatly op- 
posed at first. "The devil's kingdom of great ruffs 
is underpropped ... by a certain kind of liquid 
matter, which they call starch," cries an angry 
contemporary, "wherein the devil hath learned 
them to wash and die their ruffs, which being dry, 
will stand stiff and inflexible about their necks." 
The ruff reached so nearly to the top of the head 
that hair could no longer be worn long, as in the 
last century. Elaborately dressed hair now took 
the place of head-dresses. It was " curled, frizzled 
and crisped, laid out on wreaths and borders from 
one ear to the other " ; it was dyed golden to match 
that of the Queen^ and false hair was abundantly 
added. " Her hair shall be of what colour it 
please God," says Benedick, describing the woman 
of his choice, in condemnation of the prevailing 
fashion. Indeed, in such demand was false hair 
that it was not safe for children with good hair to 
be seen alone, lest it were cropped by the women 
who sold long tresses for curls and twists. Freely, 
too, were the dead robbed : 

"The golden tresses of the dead, 
The right of sepulchres, were shorn away 
To live a second life on second head, 
And beauty's dead fleece made another gay.'* 



SUMPTUARY LAWS 179 

Then, as now, the Court was the model for 
fashion. Queen Elizabeth had a pale complexion, 
hence the ladies of the realm swallowed " gravel, 
ashes, and tallow," and one has but little doubt 
that they successfully achieved their object. The 
Queen had a variety of new ostrich feather fans, 
hence no well dressed lady could be seen without 
one suspended by a gold chain from her wrist " to 
flit away the flisking flies." The Queen also wore 
silk stockings with clocks instead of the old cloth 
hose ; she wore high-heeled shoes or Venetian 
" chopines " ; she also carried a pocket-handker- 
chief too richly trimmed with gold and silver to 
be of much use ; she had gloves " trimmed with 
tufts of rose coloured silk," and " sweet as damask 
roses" from perfume. Gloves for women were 
quite an innovation ; hitherto they had been a 
distinctive feature of men's dress. 

But not everybody might copy the Queen's 
toilet. By the sumptuary laws of the period, only 
the nobility might wear woollen goods made out 
of England ; only those with an income of ^200 a 
year might wear velvet or embroidery ornamented 
with gold and silver ; none but those receiving over 
;^ioo might wear satin, damask, silk, or taffeta. 
The size of men's breeches, the texture of their 



180 ENGLISH SERVANTS 

material, the woolly caps to be worn by all maidens 
above the age of six, the very length of the 
apprentices' blue gowns — all these details were 
rigidly settled by law. 

Not only apprentices, but the numerous domestic 
servants of these days wore blue coats. " The 
English are lovers of show," observes a contem- 
porary, " followed wherever they go by whole 
troops of servants who wear their master's arms in 
silver, fastened on their left arms." These servants 
were subject to very strict regulations, and heavy 
fines were imposed for every misdemeanour. 
Thus to be absent from morning or evening 
prayers without just cause involved a fine of 2d. ; 
to be found in bed after 6 a.m. or out of bed after 
10 p.m. a fine of 2d. ; breakages in the household 
were deducted from the quarterly wage, and if 
there was uncertainty as to the culprit, the butler 
paid 1 2d. Unpunctuality was severely punished, 
and if the tablecloth were not laid at 10.30 a.m. 
and 5.30 p.m. for the main meals of the day, the 
fine was 6d. Further it was enacted, "That none 
toy with the maids on paine of 4d. : That no man 
weare foule shirt on Sunday, nor broken hose or 
shoes or dublett without buttons on paine of id. : 
That all stayrs in the house be made cleane on 



ENGLISH WIVES 181 

Fryday after dinner, on palne of forfeyture 3d." 
These fines were deducted from quarter-day 
wages and bestowed on the poor. Perhaps it is 
no wonder that England was called by foreigners 
"a paradise for women, a prison for servants, 
and a purgatory for horses." A paradise for 
women when compared with other countries it 
undoubtedly was. 

" Wives in England," says an Antwerp merchant 
who lived long in this country, " are entirely in 
the hands of their husbands, their lives only ex- 
cepted. Therefore, when they marry, they give up 
the surname of their father and take that of their 
husband . . . yet they are not so strictly kept as they 
are in Spain and elsewhere. Nor are they shut up, 
but they have the management of the house or 
housekeeping . . . they go to market to buy what 
they like best to eat . . . they are well dressed . . . 
and commonly leave the drudgery to their servants 
. . . they sit before their doors decked out in fine 
clothes, in order to see and be seen by the passers 
by. In all banquets and feasts they are shown the 
greatest honour : they are placed at the upper end 
of the table, where they are first served. All the 
rest of their time they employ in walking and 
riding, in playing at cards ... in visiting their 



182 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 

friends and keeping company, conversing with 
their gossips, and making merry at child-births, 
christenings and funerals, and all with the per- 
mission and knowledge of their husbands." 

Indeed, this making merry on solemn occasions 
was characteristic of Elizabethan days. At Christ- 
mas, commemorated in other countries by devo- 
tional practices, England " rang from one end to 
the other with mirth. Sports and fooleries, feasts 
and frolics, games and revels filled the joyous days 
from All Hallows Eve to the Feast of Pentecost. 
They loved a noise : the firing of cannon, the beat- 
ing of drums, the blast of trumpets and the ringing 
of many bells was as music in their ears. Our 
Elizabethan forefathers were not yet afflicted with 
the nerves of the twentieth century. Bear-baiting 
and bull-baiting presented no horrors to their 
minds ; men and women watched, with varying 
degrees of pleasure, the hoodwinking of the 
wretched animals ; they applauded the circle of 
those who plied the tethered beast with whips till 
it madly charged its unknown foes. But then 
they were familiar with the sight of public 
executions, performed by the local butcher on 
market days, and their fathers had watched the 
martyrs in the cause of religion tied to stakes at 



PLAY-GOING 183 

Smithfield while the flames consumed them. It 
was the age of rack and thumb-screw, and famihar 
to all were the heads of traitors freely exhibited to 
a callous public. 

Of out-door sports, hawking and hunting still 
held their place, while within, dancing was becom- 
ing more and more popular. Elizabeth herself 
was a famous dancer, and woe betide the courtier 
who could not tread a measure or go through 
the stately movements of the "peacock." Card- 
playing had now superseded the game of chess, 
and was growing more and more in favour. 
Primero, trump, and gleek were the favourites, 
involving heavy stakes, which bring back the cry 
of Falstaff : " I never prospered since I forswore 
myself at primero." 

But all these amusements pale before the 
growing delight of play-going. To the allegorical 
morality play — revived to-day by the Elizabethan 
Stage Society in the representation of " Every- 
man " — succeeded historical representations, at 
first crude, but carried to a triumphant height 
by Shakspere. When Elizabeth ascended the 
throne there was no theatre : miscellaneous plays 
were acted in the courtyards of great inns or 
other open spaces, on temporary stages standing 



184 FIKST THEATKE 

on four legs and protected by an awning in bad 
weather. But in 1576 a regular playhouse was 
established and called The Theatre. Here the 
stage literally was a stage — a platform erected 
against one end 0/ the square building. On the 
other three sides stood the spectators in the pit or 
yard, while all round ran galleries, boxes, or rooms, 
like the galleries of an old inn-yard. There was 
no arrangement for scenery ; everything was very 
simple, and much was left to the imagination. The 
locality was indicated by a ticket bearing one such 
word as " Garden," " Thebes," and the spectators 
pictured the scene according to experience. The 
coarseness of some of the early plays may be 
inferred from the stage directions, such as " Enter 
Anne in bed," &c. Sir Philip Sydney laughed 
openly at the inadequacy of scenic effect : " Now 
you shall see three ladies walk to gather flowers," 
he says, " and then we must believe the stage to 
be a garden. By and by we hear news of a ship- 
wreck in the same place; then we are to blame 
if we accept it not for a rock ; upon the back of 
that comes out a hideous monster with fire and 
smoke ; then the miserable beholders are bound 
to take it for a cave." A regular company of 
players was appointed, and on Sundays at one 



SHAKSPERE'S PLAYS 185 

o'clock the flag was hoisted on the top of the 
theatre to announce that the play was about to 
begin. A flourish of trumpets ushered in an 
actor in a long black velvet cloak to speak the 
prologue. Then the play began, lasting some 
two hours, the women's parts all being taken by 
young men and boys. Then, as now, a new play 
had to pass through the fiery furnace of public 
criticism, and our ancestors were evidently as 
capricious and successful as their descendants in 
howling down a piece. The passion for plays 
increased, and we hear the complaint that there 
were now " four or five Sundays in every week " : 
new theatres were built and more companies 
formed, one of which included William Shakspere. 
The representation of stirring scenes from past 
history grew and grew, till the young actor came 
forward to supply the demand. Comedies, 
tragedies, and historical plays succeeded one 
another, each of surpassing greatness, each 
complete in its knowledge of human nature, 
unexpressed by the ages that were passed. For 
the first time, men and women, convincing in 
their reality, played out their lives on the stage, 
and the drama reached a height hitherto un- 
dreamt of. 



186 SMOKING 

But if the amusement of theatre-going owes its 
origin to this period, there is another important 
addition to the social lives of our forefathers. 
The habit of smoking dates from the sixteenth 
century. The story of its introduction from the 
New World is too well known to repeat, but the 
process is quaintly described by a contemporary. 
" In these days (1573)," he says, " the taking in of 
the smoke of the Indian herb called Tabaco by an 
instrument formed like a little ladle, whereby it 
passeth from the mouth into the head and 
stomach, is greatly taken up and used in England 
against rheums and some other diseases en- 
gendered in the lungs and inward parts, and not 
without effect." Though used at first as a drug 
and for medicinal purposes. Sir Walter Raleigh 
made it fashionable, till to " take " tobacco soon 
became a necessary part of a gentleman's educa- 
tion. " They have pipes on purpose made of 
clay," says a foreigner, " into the farthest end of 
which they put the dry herb, so that it may be 
rubbed into powder, and, lighting it, they draw 
the smoke into their mouths, which they puff out 
again through their nostrils like funnels." For 
some time smoking was an expensive luxury, for 
tobacco cost as much as i8s. an ounce in modern 



OLDEN miSrS 187 

money. One pipe was often handed round the 
table for several people to use in turn, while in 
the inns the landlady often hired out a pipeful 
of tobacco to her guests. The inns of the period 
were a great advance on old days, and the comfort 
of the guests was much studied. " As soon as a 
passenger comes to an inn the servants run to him, 
and one takes his horse and walks him till he be 
cold, then rubs him down and gives him meat. 
Another servant gives the passenger his private 
chamber, and kindles the fire ; the third pulls off 
his boots and makes them cleane." Each new- 
comer, we are specially told with pride, is sure 
to lie in clean sheets, "wherein no man hath been 
lodged " since they came from the laundress or out 
of the water wherein they were last washed. But 
evidently in the minds of the travellers some 
doubt yet lingered. " My she friend, is my bed 
made ? is it good ? " asks a traveller of the 
chambermaid "Jane.'* 

" Yes, sir, it is a good featherbed ; the sheets be 
very clean." 

" Pull off my hose, and warm my bed ; draw 
the curtains and pin with a pin, my she friend ; 
kisse me once and I shall sleep the better. I 
thank you, fair maiden." Presumably, according 



188 FIEST COACHES 

to the free-and-easy manners of the day, " Jane " 
acquiesced, for we hear the traveller called for 
her in the morning and tipped her well at his 
departure. 

The large beds of Elizabethan days found 
their way into the inns and accommodated many 
travellers : — 

"At Ware was a bed of dimensions wide; 
Four couples might easily sleep side by side." 

The charge was somewhat elastic, and great 
good-nature usually prevailed. Having eaten at 
dinner as much as he can, the guest is free to set 
by a part for the next day's breakfast. His bill 
is then made out, and should he object to any 
charge, "the host is ready to alter it." Coaches 
as yet were rare as a means of conveyance, 
and the roads were bad for travelling. "For, 
indeed, a coach was a strange monster in those 
days, and the sight of it put both horse and man 
into amazement ; some said it was a great crab 
shell brought out of China, and some imagined 
it to be one of the Pagan Temples in which the 
canibals adored the devil." Nevertheless, Queen 
Elizabeth drove in her coach and the ladies of 
the land strove to follow her example. Luggage 



DEATH OF ELIZABETH 189 

was for the most part carried in a chariot with 
" seven great trotting horses," and here is an 
amusing Hst of personal possessions which a 
gentleman's servant had to remember not to 
leave behind in inns — purse, dagger, cloak, night- 
cap, kerchief, shoeing-horn, wallet, shoes, spear, 
hood, halter, saddle cloth, spurs, hat, bow, arrows, 
sv/ord, horn, leash, gloves, string, pen, paper, ink, 
parchment, red wax, pumice, books, penknife, 
comb, thimble, needle, thread, bodkin, knife, and 
shoemaker's thread. 

So passed life in England during the forty-five 
momentous years of Elizabeth's reign. Our 
country had grown up around a Queen whose 
instinctive sympathy with her people had sug- 
gested possibilities hitherto undreamt of " Round 
her, with all her faults, the England which we 
know grew into the consciousness of its destiny." 



CHAPTER XV 

Circa 1603 — 1642 

THE PURITANS 

"Go, and in regions far such heroes bring ye forth 
As those from whom we came ; and plant our name 
Under that star not known unto our north." 

Michael Drayton. 

JAMES I. loved show and magnificence quite 
as much as his predecessors, Henry VHI. 
and Elizabeth, so that we find the dress of the 
last period yet more exaggerated, extravagant 
sums of money spent on luxuries, banquets, 
masques, and other entertainments, and a general 
light worldliness pervading society during the 
early part of the seventeenth century. The Court 
itself was a " nursery of intemperance " ; we hear 
rumours of the King being carried away from the 
dinner-table in his chair, unable to stand, ladies 
rolling about in intoxication. Thus the honour, 

191 



192 UNDER JAMES I. 

glory, and prestige of the nation bequeathed by 
Elizabeth soon vanished under her thriftless heir. 
The manners and customs of the Court became 
the manners and customs of the nation, until we 
are told " every great house in the country became 
a sty of uncleanness." Masques, coarse plays, 
and bear-baiting deteriorated public taste and 
mocked the past glory of the drama. Dress, 
too, had grown so exaggerated that in a rush of 
ladies to see a masque at Whitehall four or 
five got wedged together by reason of their 
huge farthingales, unable to move themselves, 
and effectually blocking the entrance to others 
till half through the play. For a time these 
" impertinent garments " were forbidden by the 
King, but neither this incident nor the Royal 
proclamation made any difference, and the size 
of the farthingale grew ever larger and larger. 
Indeed, the Queen, Anne of Denmark, even rode 
in a huge " wheel farthingale," with a ruff standing 
up round the back of her neck, stiff as pasteboard, 
starched with the fashionable yellow starch. The 
King himself figured daily in a new suit. But 
matters reached a climax when the Duke of 
Buckingham went to the French Court to fetch 
Henrietta Maria to England as a bride for the 



MANCHET RECEIPT 193 

King's son Charles, dressed in a suit of uncut 
white velvet, a cloak set all over with diamonds 
valued at eighty thousand pounds, a diamond 
feather in his hat, sword and girdle all set with 
precious stones. Feasting and riotous living were 
as conspicuous as extravagance in dress, until the 
household expenses of the King amounted to 
double those of his predecessor. 

While such were the habits of the Court, one 
recalls with satisfaction the fact, that there were 
many of the country gentlemen left who followed 
the routine of the last generation. There was 
still in England the family rising at daybreak 
and assembling at family prayers read by the 
domestic chaplain. Breakfast consisted of a pint 
of beer and a pint of wine for each person, a 
piece of salt fish, some baked herrings, a chine 
of mutton or " three mutton bones boiled," to- 
gether with the inevitable manchet, for which 
this is a seventeenth-century receipt : " Take a 
bushel of fine wheat flour, 20 eggs, 3 lb. of fresh 
butter ; then take as much salt and barm as 
usual ; temper it together with new milk pretty 
hot; then let it lie the space of half an hour to 
rise, so you may work it up into bread and 
bake it; let not your oven be too hot." After 

U 



194: EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN 

breakfast, the master of the household and his 
sons got into the saddle and went off to hunt 
the deer, followed by scores of attendants, while 
the lady and her daughters superintended the 
dairy and buttery, dealt out bread and meat 
to the poor at their gates, and ordered the day's 
spinning. Indeed, the spinning of wool and flax 
was laborious and incessant, and the beautiful 
linen was handed down from generation to 
generation, as was also the hand embroidery, 
which often took some generations to complete. 
Needlework was a very necessary part of a 
woman's education in the seventeenth century; 
not less important was a knowledge of fine 
cooking, curing, preserving, distilling, candying, 
the making of syrups and jellies, beautifying 
washes, vinegar, pickles, and essences. Thus we 
get a lady excusing herself for not writing her 
letters, "Being almost melted with the double 
heat of the weather and my hotter employment 
because the fruit is suddenly ripe and I am 
busy preserving." 

At noon came dinner, proclaimed by a noisy 
bell — a large and solid meal, after which sack 
and home - brewed ale, foreign wines, card- 
playing, love-making, dancing and other amuse- 



DOMESTIC LIFE 195 

ments passed the time to sunset, when the hour 
for bed was at hand. For those who could read, 
there was the Hbrary, which usually consisted of 
some six or eight huge printed volumes. Here 
was the great family Bible, Fox's "Acts and 
Monuments," Froissart's Chronicles, " The Seven 
Champions of Christendom," and others of like 
description. 

But even as the century passed, we find a 
more mercenary spirit creeping over domestic 
life. Here is an amusing letter from a newly 
married lady stating her requirements : — 

" My sweet Life, — I suppose it were best for 
me to bethink and consider within myself what 
allowance were meetest for me. I pray and 
beseech you to grant to me, your most kind 
and loving wife, the sum of £2,600 quarterly to 
be paid. Also I would, beside that allowance, 
have £600 quarterly to be paid for the perform- 
ance of charitable works and those things I 
would not, neither will be, accountable for 
Also I will have three horses for my own saddle 
that none shall dare to lend or borrow. Also I 
would have two gentlewomen, lest one should be 
sick, also, believe it, it is an undecent thing for 
a gentlewoman to stand mumping alone, when 



196 WIFE'S ALLOWANCE 

God hath blessed their lord and lady with a 
great estate — also for either of these said women 
I must and will have for either of them a horse. 
Also I will have six or eight gentlemen, and I 
will have my two coaches, one lined with velvet 
to myself with four very fair horses, and a coach 
for my women lined with cloth and laced with 
gold, with four good horses. Also I will have 
two coachmen, one for my own coach, the other 
for my women. Also, for that it is undecent 
to crowd up myself with my gentleman-usher 
in my coach, I will have him to have a con- 
venient horse to attend me. And I must have 
two footmen. And my desire is that you 
defray all the charges for me. And for my- 
self, besides my yearly allowance, I would have 
twenty gownes of apparel, six of them excel- 
lent good ones, eight of them for country, and 
six other of them very excellent good ones. 
Also I would have to put in my purse ;^2,ooo 
and ;^200, and so you to pay my debts. Also 
I would have £6,000 to buy me jewels and 
;^4,ooo to buy me a pearl chain. Now, seeing 
I have been, and am, so reasonable unto you, I 
pray you do find my children apparel and their 
schooling, and all my servants — men and women 



COMMEECIAL UNDERTAKINGS 197 

— their wages. Also I will have all my houses 
furnished and my lodging chambers to be 
suited with all such furniture as is fit; as beds, 
stools, chairs, suitable cushions, carpets, silver 
warming pans, cupboards of plate, fair hangings, 
and such like. So for my drawing chamber, in 
all houses, I will have them delicately furnished 
both with hangings, couch, canopy, glass, car- 
pets, chairs, cushions, and all things thereunto 
belonging." 

Marriage in these days was very much a 
commercial proceeding, so much portion against 
so much income. The love of husbands and 
wives, of parents and children, was as strong as 
it had ever been and will ever be, but the 
ordinary falling in love of young men and 
women was not considered of the slightest 
importance. 

" I mean to marry my daughter to ;^2,ooo a 
year," wrote one Englishman of this period to 
another. 

" I am afraid in these bad times you will not 
match your sisters as you desire," wrote another. 

Thus a man was an appendage to fortune, 
children but pawns to advance the position and 
wealth of their parents. There was bargaining 



198 UNHAPPY MARRIAGE 

about money matters, discussion as to what the 
bridegroom elect was bound to supply, the 
unscrupulous dropping of one proposal after 
another with the barest motives of interest. 
Here is the triumphant announcement of an 
engagement : " Sister Pegg is suddenly to be 
married to Mr. Elwes, of Northamtonshire ; his 
estate is knowne to the world to be at the least 
;^2,ooo a year. He makes her of his owne offer 
;^500 a year good security Joynter " ; but a few 
weeks later follows a lamentable account of this 
commercial union : " Poor peg has married a very 
humersome cros boy has ever I see in my life, 
and she is very much altered for the worse 
since she was married ; I do not blame her, 
because sometimes he maks her cry night 
and day." 

Large families gave the mother of the period 
ample occupation ; the infant mortality was 
tremendous, and, if over half the children sur- 
vived babyhood, the mother was considered a 
remarkable manager. We hear of a healthy 
baby of a month old overlaid by his nurse, of 
another "seven weeks languishing, breeding teeth 
and ending in a dropsy," of another dying after 
six fits of a "quartan ague," suffocated by the 



UNHAPPY CHILDHOOD 199 

"women and maids that attended him and 
covered him too hot with blankets as he lay in 
a cradle, near an excessive hot fire in a close 
room." Children were unsuitably fed and un- 
suitably dressed. They were little miniatures 
of their parents, and must have suffered much 
in the big ruffs and padded breeches of the 
period. A great deal was expected of them. 
We hear of a child of three years old being 
complained of for being " shy and rustic " by 
his father, till even his stern old grandmother 
is obliged to intercede for him. " Sonn," she 
writes, "Edmund must be woone with fiar 
menes. Let me begge of you and his mother 
that nobody whip him, but Mr. Parrye ; yf 
you doe goe a violent waye with him, you will 
be the furst that will rue it, for i veryly beleve 
he will reseve ingery by it." There was little 
happy childhood for the children of these days. 
Lucy Hutchinson has told us that at four years 
old she could read English perfectly, and was 
"carried to sermons," which she could afterwards 
repeat word for word, while at the age of seven 
she was receiving instruction from no less than 
eight tutors. But even this pales before the 
knowledge of poor little Richard Evelyn, a 



200 EXCESSIVE LEARNING 

few years later, who died at the age of five. 
His accomplishments are almost incredible, but 
his father declares that at two and a half 
years old he could perfectly read any of the 
English, Latin, French, or Gothic letters, pro- 
nouncing the three first languages exactly. "He 
had before the fifth year not only skill to read 
most written hands, but to decline all the nouns, 
conjugate the verbs, regular and most of the 
irregular, got by heart almost the entire 
vocabulary of Latin and French primitives and 
words, could make congruous syntax, turn 
English into Latin, and vice versa^ construe and 
prove what he read, and did the government and 
use of relatives, verbs, substantives, ellipses, and 
many figures and tropes ; began himself to write 
legibly, and had a strong passion for Greek. 
The number of verses he could recite was pro- 
digious ; he had read ^sop, he had a wonderful 
disposition to mathematics, having by heart 
divers propositions of Euclid that were read to 
him in play, and he would make lines and 
demonstrate them. He had learned all his 
Catechism early, and understood the historical 
part of the Bible and New Testament to a 
wonder." 



FIRST INLAND POST 201 

Letter-writing, too, was on the increase, 
encouraged by improved means of communi- 
cation. In 1635 the first inland post was 
established by Charles I., who commands his 
" Postmaster of England ... to settle a running 
post or two to run night and day between 
Edinburgh and London, to go thither and come 
back again in six days, and to take with them all 
such letters as shall be directed to any post-town 
in or near that road." Five years later eight 
postal lines were running in England, the rates 
of postage being 2d. for 80 miles, 4d. for 140 
miles, while to Scotland cost 8d. Distance was 
little considered in these days. Prince Henry, 
the delicate son of James I., rode 96 miles to 
meet his father, setting out at one o'clock in the 
morning to avoid riding through the heat of the 
day. Hackney carriages were as yet in their 
infancy. It was not till 1625 that some twenty 
of them made their appearance in the streets of 
London, and one smiles at the proclamation ten 
years later forbidding hackney coaches in London, 
Westminster or the suburbs to travel more than 
three miles an hour because they "pestered the 
streets, broke up the pavements, and made 
walking dangerous." A few years later, some 



202 THE PURITANS 

fifty hackney coaches were plying in London and 
the suburbs, but a greater luxury was the sedan 
chair, in which ladies and gentlemen who could 
afford it, might be carried from place to place. 

It was against these and other luxuries that 
the Puritans now directed their fiercest attacks. 
These Puritans had been growing in numbers 
and strength since the times of Queen Elizabeth. 
Their aims have been summed up by Carlyle as : 
" The struggle of men intent on the real essence 
of things against men intent on the semblances 
and forms of things . . . fierce destroyers of 
Forms ; but it were more just to call them 
haters of untrue Forms." 

That worship at this time needed reform, few 
denied, but by suppression and persecution during 
the reign of Elizabeth the Puritans had become 
martyrs and their cause grew apace. The new 
King (James I.) had hardly crossed the Border 
when the Puritan ministers pressed further for 
reform. Among other things, they demanded 
certain alterations in the Prayer-book of Edward 
VI., they pleaded against the sign of the cross in 
baptism and the ring in marriage, against the use 
of cap and surplice, against the " longsomeness 
of service and the abuse of Church songs and 



DISSENT 203 

music." They did not want to separate them- 
selves from the Church of England, only to reform 
the abuses that had crept in. A conference took 
place, but neither party would concede ground. 
The King definitely declared for the historic 
tradition of the Church service, but agreed to 
the Puritan demand for a new translation of 
the Bible. This accordingly was made by forty- 
seven scholars and dedicated to King James I. 
in the year 1611, since which date it has been in 
general use till to-day. 

The results of the conference were far reaching. 
Two irreconcilable parties had arisen in England 
— those who clung to the historic Church of 
England and those who dissented from it or 
refused to conform to it. Hence the name 
Dissenter and Nonconformist. Statesmen who 
had little sympathy with the religious spirit 
pleaded for the purchase of national union by 
ecclesiastical reform. 

"Why," asked Bacon, "should the Civil State 
be purged and restored by good and wholesome 
laws made every three years in Parliament assem- 
■bled, devising remedies as fast as time breedeth 
mischief, and contrariwise the Ecclesiastical State 
still continue upon the dregs of time and 



204 ENGLISH IN AMERICA 

receive no alteration these forty-five years or 
more ? " 

But James was resolute against changes in 
Church discipline, and matters took their natural 
course. The first congregation of nonconformists 
crossed the sea to Holland, where they might 
feel free to follow their ideal life and develop 
those principles of a free worship for which they 
had struggled in vain at home. Thence they 
sailed to the New World. The beautiful, if 
pathetic story of the Pilgrim Fathers is well 
known ; every detail of the terrible voyage, of 
the stout hearts and calm endurance of the 
stricken travellers to the little settlement of New 
Plymouth, is familiar. 

And " over the wintry sea, to the desolate shores 
of New England," our ancestors carried the 
manners and customs of their country. As tim.e 
went on, more and more Nonconformists sailed 
across the broad Atlantic to make new homes. 
In 1630 some thousand men of education and 
culture, of fortune and position, left their English 
hearths, their estates, their friends, for the privilege 
of worshipping God as they chose in a new land. 
" Farewell, dear England ; farewell the Church of 
God in England. We do not go to New England 



THE NEW WORLD 205 

as Separatists from the Church of England, but 
we go to practise the positive part of Church 
reformation and to propagate the Gospel in 
America. We esteem it an honour to call the 
Church of England our dear Mother ... we wish 
our heads and hearts may be fountains of tears for 
your everlasting welfare, when we shall be in our 
poor cottage in the wilderness." Such were the 
Englishmen — statesmen, theologians, pioneers — 
who went forth into the waste lands to enjoy the 
freedom that they thought the old country had 
lost. English houses, English gardens, orchards, 
cornfields, all sprang up in these lands beyond 
the seas. Into the New World the Englishmen 
carried all that was dear to them at home, and the 
traditions of English endurance, of courage, per- 
severance, and dogged resolution carried thence 
have been large factors in the moulding of the 
American nation. For " truly they come of 
the Blood," and though some three hundred 
years have rolled away since our fathers left 
their English homes, and the little Puritan 
colonies have grown into a great and inde- 
pendent nation, yet their ancestors are our 
ancestors, and no width of stormy sea can 
wash out the old blood relationship which is a 



206 "WE ABE ONE" 

bond stronger than love, a force mightier than 
time. 

"While the manners, while the arts, 

That mould a nation's soul, 
Still cling around our hearts, 

Between let ocean roll, 
Our joint communion breaking with the sun; 

Yet, still, from either beach. 

The voice of blood shall reach 

More audible than speech, 
'We are one.'" 



CHAPTER XVI 

Circa 1642 — 1660 

ENGLAND A COMMONWEALTH 

"For the apparel oft proclaims the man." — Shakspere. 

IF a large number of Puritans had sailed away 
from England to make new homes in 
America, yet a vast and ever increasing number 
remained at home. And these, growing stronger 
and stronger, influenced to no small extent the 
manners and customs of their country. Dress 
became a matter, not of fashion, but of conscience, 
and we get at this period two distinct types 
existing side by side — the Puritan in his sombre 
and plainly cut garments, the Cavalier in the glory 
of his slashed silk doublet, his point-lace collar, 
and his broad-brimmed, plumed hat. To the 
Puritan, "beauty was a curse and luxury a crime." 
He turned in disgust from the extravagance of the 

207 



208 ROUNDHEAD AND CAVALIER 

Court, he held aloof from those amusements and 
pursuits which he felt were dragging his country 
to ruin. He cut his hair close round his head, 
thus earning the nickname of Roundhead as 
opposed to the long-haired Cavalier, for long hair 
was to him a luxury and a temptation to vanity. 
He disliked the soft brimmed hat of the Cavalier, 
with its graceful ease, wearing instead a stiff, 
high-crowned, broad-brimmed hat at once severe 
and forbidding. His doublet and hose were of 
dark coarse cloth, and his stockings of thick 
worsted. He wore no bright colours, no lace, no 
jewels, no ruff; round his neck was a broad 
folded band of linen. Here were no slashings, no 
" rustle of silks, no waving of plumes, no clink of 
golden spurs." 

The Puritan lady dressed likewise in sombre 
hues. She wore a plain silk gown of grey with 
a folded white handkerchief, or cape with long 
close sleeves and a plain hood tied under the chin, 
or a broad-brimmed felt hat with a high crown. 
All was neat and plain and picturesque, a con- 
trast to the Court beauty and to her gay courtier 
n his graceful clothes. His doublet was of silk or 
satin with loose, slashed sleeves, his wide collar of 
fine lace high up round the throat and turned 



SPOKTS FOKBIDDEN 209 

over, his shirt of the finest linen, trimmed with 
lace and richly embroidered, his short trousers 
finished with fringe below the knee, his boots of 
Spanish leather with wide ruffs at the top. His 
hair was long, and usually arranged in thick 
curls, the forerunner of the periwig. No wonder 
that contemporaries bemoaned these " thousand 
fooleries unknowne to our manly forefathers," 
and that against such effeminacy the Puritans 
made their stand. 

It was not dress alone that determined the 
ever-widening breach between Roundhead and 
Cavalier. The Puritans were strong enough 
in the Parliament of 1642 to interfere with 
popular sports and pastimes in England. Bear- 
baiting, cock-fighting, and horse-racing were 
forbidden, theatres were closed, and acting com- 
panies dispersed. " Whereas," ran the procla- 
mation, " public sports do not well agree with 
public calamities, nor public stage plays with 
the seasons of humiliation ... it is thought fit 
that while these sad causes ... do continue, 
public plays shall cease." Sunday was very 
strictly observed, and all persons were forbidden 
to be present on Sundays at wrestling, shooting, 
bowling, ringing of bells for pleasure, games, 
15 



210 FOOTBALL 

dancing, masques, or other pastimes. Up to this 
time, Sunday had been the great day for games 
of all sorts : tennis and golf, cricket and the new- 
game of pall mall and football were all played on 
Sunday, though the latter game in the time of the 
Commonwealth seems to have been very rough 
and to have incurred much displeasure. We hear 
of an apothecary, John Bishop, who with " force 
and arms did wilfully and in a violent and 
boisterous manner run to and fro and kick up 
and down in the common High Street of Maid- 
stone a certain ball of leather commonly called 
a football unto the great annoyance and incum- 
brance of the said common highway and to the 
great disquiet and disturbance of the good people, 
and to the evil example of others." 

But the clash of arms put an end to Puritan 
legislation, and the Civil War that burst out 
between Cavalier and Roundhead brought about 
an abnormal state of society. Both sides occupied 
themselves in raising volunteers, collecting sub- 
scriptions, and drilling raw recruits. Fire-arms 
were scarce, and the old long-bow and cross-bow 
were again brought into use. Old armour hanging 
in the ancestral halls was brought down and 
cleaned for use. The rustic labourer was changed 



CIVIL WAR 211 

into a soldier, the young farmer became a dragoon 
with carbine and pistol. There was no uniform 
as yet, for there was no standing army. Cavaliers 
fought in buff coats shining with gold and silver 
embroidery, in large Spanish hats with drooping 
feathers, their long hair floating over their 
shoulders ; they were for the most part gentle- 
men's sons, men of honour, courage, and resolu- 
tion, fighting for King and Church against the 
splendid middle class of the country, the Round- 
heads of Cromwell, "men of religion" as they 
called themselves, Puritans, who allowed no 
drinking, blasphemy, or impiety in their ranks. 
There were great men on either side ready to lay 
down their lives for " The King " or " The Cause." 
Women, too, rose to meet their responsibilities 
with a capability and courage that stands out 
brightly in our social history. To pay the 
necessary expenses, the wealthy brought their 
bags of gold and silver, the poor their smallest 
offerings, "a thimble, bodkin, and spoon," until 
Cavaliers jeered at the " thimble and bodkin " 
army of the zealous sisterhood. 

"Women that left no stone unturn'd 
In which the Cause might be concern'd 
Brought in their children's spoons and whistles 
To purchase swords, carbines, and pistols." 



212 WOMEN'S COURAGE 

A brewer's wife, the Puritan Ann Stagg, headed 
a procession of women to the House of Commons 
with a petition when war was imminent. " It 
may be thought strange and unbecoming to our 
sex to show ourselves here, bearing a petition to 
this honourable assembly ; but Christ purchased 
us at as dear a rate as He did men, and therefore 
requlreth the same obedience for the same mercy 
as of men ; we are sharers in public calamities." 

" Repair to your homes, we entreat," was the 
earnest answer, "and turn your petitions into 
prayers at home for us." 

No less earnest were the wives of the Cavaliers. 
Lady Bankes in the defence of Corfe Castle and 
the Countess of Derby at Lathom House are 
instances of women's splendid achievements in the 
strife that was rending their hearts and taking 
from them husband and son. How their sufferings 
were intensified when these fought on opposite 
sides is shown in the case of Lady Denbigh : 
" O my deere son, that you would turn to the 
King. ... I cannot forget what a son I had 
once. ... I do more travell with soro for the 
grefe I suffer . . . than ever I did to breeng you 
into the world." And again after the death of 
her husband : " O my deere Jesus, put it into my 



WOMEN AS NURSES 213 

deere son's heart to leve that merciless company 
that was the deth of his father, for now I think 
of it with horror, before with sorrow. So, deere 
sone. . . . Our Lord bless you. Your loveing 
Mother." 

Neither are the brave letters of Brilliana, Lady 
Harley, less conspicuous. In the absence of 
husband and son she managed the estates, 
harbouring her Puritan neighbours in the Castle. 
At the end of a six weeks' siege she died at her 
post. But during that six weeks we have glimpses 
of her making pies and cakes to send to her 
husband, knitting socks, and sending shirts and 
handkerchers to the deere son Ned she loved so 
well, and to whom she pens her last letter : " My 
deere Ned, I thank God, I am not afraid ; it is the 
Lord's cause that we have stood for." 

Not only as defenders of their homes, but as 
sick nurses, too, women shone in these three stern 
years of civil war. One " with excellent balsams 
and plasters" dressed many dangerous gun-shot 
wounds with such success " that they were all 
well cured in convenient time." Standing at her 
door one day, she saw three sorely-wounded 
prisoners carried past her bleeding : she ordered 
them to be brought to her, and, although they 



214 KNOWLEDGE OF HERBS 

were her enemies, she bound up and dressed 
their wounds. These were not days famous for 
mercy, pity, and forgiveness, and she was re- 
monstrated with. " I have done nothing but what 
I think is my duty," she affirmed, "in humanity 
to them as fellow-creatures, not as enemies." 

So, too, Anne Murray worked, evidently with 
some knowledge of nursing and strong nerves. 
" I believe threescore was the least that was 
dressed by me and my women and a man who 
I employed to such as was unfit for me to dress ; 
and besides the plasters or balsam I applied I 
gave every one of them as much as might dress 
them three or four times, for I had provided 
myself with things necessary for that employ- 
ment, expecting they might be useful." Many 
of the wounds had been left too long, but when 
others shrank from dressing them, this brave 
woman struggled on. " None was able to stay 
in the room, but all left me," she says of one 
bad case. "Accidentally a gentleman came in, 
who seeing me cutting off the man's sleeve of his 
doublet, which was hardly fit to be touched, he 
was so charitable as to take a knife and cut it 
off and fling it in the fire." 

Instances such as these might be multiplied, 



FIRST NEWSLETTER 215 

but a few words must be said about the first 
newspapers by which men and women got their 
news during the war. 

As early as the year 1622 Nathaniel Butter hit 
on the idea of printing all the news of the day 
upon a single sheet and publishing it regularly 
week by week under a distinctive title. The 
news writers, special correspondents as we call 
them to-day, used to make their way from tavern 
to tavern, picking up odds and ends of news ; 
they would squeeze into the Old Bailey to report 
some interesting trial, or obtain admission to the 
gallery of Whitehall to notice how the King was 
dressed. With the outbreak of the war the demand 
for news increased, and each side started its own 
newspaper. The Royalist paper, Mercurius Aulicus^ 
appeared in 1643, ^'^'^ numerous others followed. 
There was the Kingdom's Weekly Intelligencer^ the 
Weekly Posty the Mercurius Politicus^ the Public 
Advertiser y &c. One hundred and seventy weekly 
papers are said to have started between 1642 
and 1649. These little sheets had a powerful 
effect. They were distributed through the villages 
by carriers and foot posts ; countrywomen 
carried them from the market town in their 
egg-baskets, and those who could read eagerly 



216 EEVOLUTION 

devoured the news, which was often more false 
than true. 

By this means the people learnt that the war 
was at an end ; that after a trial, famous in 
history, the King had been beheaded ; that " the 
House of Peers in Parliament was useless and 
dangerous and ought to be abolished," and, finally, 
" that the office of King in this nation was un- 
necessary, burdensome, and dangerous to the 
liberty, safety, and public interest of the people, 
and ought to be abolished." Such revolutionary 
measures must have filled the people's minds with 
that idea of instability which must needs accom- 
pany rapid change. With the victory of Puritanism 
fresh measures of suppression took place. Cathe- 
dral worship was put down, buildings were 
defaced and injured, altars and tables of stone 
in churches were abolished, communion tables 
removed from the east end of the church, rails 
pulled down, candlesticks taken away, crucifixes, 
images, and crosses destroyed. How careless 
men had grown about public worship is shown 
by Evelyn : " They read and pray without method, 
without reverence or devotion. I have beheld a 
whole congregation sit with their hats on, at the 
reading of the Psalms ... in divers places they 
read not the Scriptures at all, but up into the 



COMMONWEALTH 217 

pulpit, where they make an insipid, tedious, and 
immethodical prayer . . . after which follows the 
sermon . . . which nor the people nor themselves 
well understand, but these they extend to an 
extraordinary length . . . and well they may, for 
their chairs are lined with prodigious velvet 
cushions, upon which they loll and talk till 
almost they sleep. Few take notice of the 
Lord's Prayer ; it is esteemed a weakness to use 
it. Such of the churches as I have frequented 
were dammed up with pews, every three or four 
of the inhabitants sitting in narrow pounds or 
pulpits by themselves. The apprehension of 
Popery having carried them so far to the other 
extreme, they have lost all moderation and 
decorum." The idea of the Commonwealth was 
to make men religious and temperate by Act 
of Parliament. Hence profane cursing and swear- 
ing were fined ; the first offence for a duke, 
marquis, earl, viscount, or baron was 30s. ; a 
baronet or knight, 20s. ; esquire, los. ; gentleman, 
6s. 8d. ; and all others 3s. 4d. A woman indulging 
in oaths was fined according to the position of 
her husband or father. Those unable to pay were 
put in the stocks, or, if under the age of twelve, 
they were whipped. All buying and selling on 
Sunday was stopped, travelling was forbidden, 



218 THE PURITAJ^^S 

drunkenness was fined, and all Sunday amuse- 
ments were stopped, till the country wore an 
air of gloomy satisfaction, very unlike the merrie 
England of Queen Elizabeth. 

A Republican simplicity ruled supreme — the re- 
formed style of living resembled the old Saxon 
coarseness. The Protector's wife set an example 
of pious plainness. She ate marrow puddings for 
breakfast, and fed her husband on sausages of hog's 
liver. When she suspected general discontent in 
her household she was heard to remark : " The 
kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but 
righteousness and peace." Nevertheless, when the 
huge experiment of the Commonwealth was ended 
and all is said and done, when two centuries and 
more have matured the harsh austerity of the 
Puritans and toughened the graceful ease and 
luxury of the Cavaliers, it must be owned that 
Puritanism left the mass of Englishmen what it 
made them, "serious, earnest, sober in life and 
conduct, firm in their love of . . . freedom." It 
introduced a note of sobriety and purity into 
English society ; it imposed self-restraint, simplicity 
of living, stern justice, and elevation of thought, 
and it has been thoughtfully said that the " whole 
history of English progress since the Restoration 
. . . has been the history of Puritanism." 



CHAPTER XVII 

Circa 1660— 1688 

THE RESTORATION 

" Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." 

I Cor. XV. 

WHEN Charles II., the Merry Monarch, 
came to his own again in 1660 and 
once more occupied the throne of his ancestors, 
the whole country burst into unrestrained joy. 
But if Englishmen had eleven years previously 
swept away a Court and its vices, they now had 
unwittingly restored a Court with worse vices. 
Deplorable indeed were the morals of the newly-- 
restored Court. The age was one of " coarse wit 
and loud laughter, of clever talk, of dancing, 
duelling, dining, theatre-going, card-playing, horse- 
racing, and of amusement raised to the dignity 
of a fine art." Passions sternly repressed 

219 



220 EEACTION 

by the Puritans burst forth unrestrained as 
soon as the check was withdrawn. The desire 
for amusement was indulged to the full, little or 
no restraint being imposed. Cock-fighting and 
bull-baiting, " butcherly sports," were once more 
freely witnessed by all classes of society. Ladies 
and gentlemen, disguised with masks, mixed with 
the common people at crowded fairs and low 
entertainments. Cards and gambling passed 
away the precious hours, and " cursing, swear- 
ing, grumbling, and rejoicing were heard to an 
accompanying rattle of guineas." Women joined 
enthusiastically ; night after night they sat at 
the card-table indulging in this fashionable folly, 
heedless of rebuke and warning: 

"Yet sitting up so late, as I am told, 
You'll lose in beauty what you gain in gold." 

The game of Gleek, popular in Queen Elizabeth's 
time, sprang into favour at the Restoration. Pepys 
learnt the game in the winter of 1662 : " My Aunt 
Wright and my wife and I to cards, she teaching 
of us to play at Gleek, which is a pretty game." 
Whist was played towards the close of the reign 
of Charles II. In 1674 a book appeared called 
The Compleat Gambler ; or, Instructions how to 



WHIST AND BILLIAEDS 221 

Play at Billiards, Bowls, and Chess, together with 
all Manner of Gentile Games either in Cards or 
Dice." One chapter is devoted to " English Ruff 
and Honours and Whist," which apparently every 
child of eight years old was expected to play. 
That a good deal of cheating took place we may 
infer from the following significant passage : " He 
that can by craft overlook his adversary's game 
hath a great advantage, for by that means he may 
partly know what to play securely. There is a 
way to discover to their partners what honours 
they have ; as the wink of one eye or putting one 
finger on the nose or table, it signifies one honour ; 
shutting both the eyes, two ; placing three fingers 
or four on the table, four honours." Billiards, one 
of the few games allowed through the gloomy 
Commonwealth, now grew in popularity, till in 
1688 there were few towns in England without 
a public billiard table. The game at this time 
differed very considerably from our modern game. 
The balls were very small, the cues were tipped 
with ivory, the bed of the table was made of oak 
or marble, the pockets or hazards were merely 
wooden boxes. 

Once more the bear-gardens and cock-pits, 
practically deserted during the Commonwealth, 



222 COCK-FIGHTING 

were daily packed. Every class resorted thither 
to gamble and bet, quarrel and thieve. 

" To Shoe Lane," writes Pepys in 1663, "to see 
a Cocke-fighting at a new pit there, a spot I was 
never at in my life : but Lord ! to see the strange 
variety of people, from Parliament man ... to 
the poorest prentices, bakers, brewers, butchers, 
draymen and what not; and all these fellows are 
cursing and betting. I soon had enough of it." 
To render the cocks fit for this horrid sport their 
crests and spurs were cut off, while their food was 
mixed with pepper, cloves, and the yolks of eggs, 
to heat them and render them more vigorous for 
battle, which ended only with the death of one or 
the other. Play-going was enthusiastically revived, 
but the drama was very different to what it had 
been in the glorious days of Shakspere. True, 
we hear of revivals of " Henry IV.," " Hamlet," 
and "Henry VHL," but for the most part the 
new comedies to which our forefathers flocked at 
this time were of the coarsest nature, a clear 
reflection of their ideas and manners. We see 
them crowding the theatres with noisy enjoy- 
ment, roaring applause to brilliant dialogue, 
sparkling wit and repartee. Love, marriage, im- 
morality were treated with coarse freedom ; virtue 



AMUSEMENTS OF THE DAY 223 

was at a discount ; humanity, noble sentiments, 
manly courage and high achievement no longer 
represented Englishmen on the stage. For the 
moment these things had passed away ! 

Trivial enough, too, were the indoor amuse- 
ments of grown-up folk. "I love my love with 
an A," was a favourite game. It was played 
after dinner by " all the great ladies sitting upon 
a carpet," with much wit and personal indelicacy. 
" Drawing characters," too, opens up a terrible 
vista of possibilities. " Crambo," " Hunt the Slip- 
per," "Blind Man's Buff," and "Hot Cockles," 
were all favourite amusements of the day. 

An enormous amount of time and thought was 
lavished upon dress by men as well as by women. 
Pepys never wearies of describing to us his fine 
clothes ; he tells us of new suits of silk and cloth 
trimmed with scarlet ribbons, of velvet coats and 
cloaks shining with silver buttons, of high-crowned 
beaver hats adorned with plumes of feathers and 
worn indoors as well as out, of lace ruffles and 
rich falling collars of lace, high-heeled shoes, and 
the introduction into England of the famous wig. 
This was in the year 1664, when the large periwig 
or peruke found its way, like all other fashions, 
from the Court of the French King. One by one 



224 WIGS 

men and women succumbed to the prevailing 
mode. At once arose a great demand for hair to 
make wigs, and we get a despairing letter from the 
North of England, to which fashions penetrated 
slowly : " Peg can hear of no hair at any barber's." 
\/ Women now began to use paint for their 
faces and to wear little black patches, so popu- 
lar in the reign of Queen Anne. Paris still 
dictated English fashions. While powder and 
patches were among ordinary toilet necessaries, 
tooth-brushes were yet costly luxuries, and only 
obtainable in France. These little "brushes for 
making cleane of the teeth " were for the most 
part covered with gold and silver. Not only were 
friends commissioned to buy these rarities abroad, 
but others travelling to London were given lists 
of commissions which were drawn up in the 
greatest detail : " If you would please to employ 
somebody to choose me out a lace that hath but 
very little silver in it and not above a spangle or 
two in a peak," writes a lady of high degree ; " I 
would not have it too heavy a lace ; about the 
breadth of a threepenny ribbon, very little 
border, will be enough, and I pray you to choose 
me out some ribbon to make strings ; six yards 
will be enough ; some shaded satin ribbon will be 



GEEAT PLAGUE 225 

the best, of fourpenny breadth, and I would fain 
have some very little edging lace, as slight as may 
be, to edge the strings, and but little silver in ity 
ten yards will be enough." 

The close summer of 1665 brought our ancestors 
something else to think of besides dress and 
recreation. After a dry winter and spring, June 
dawned with unusual heat, and the twelfth and 
last plague swept over England, carrying off 
hundreds and thousands of men, women, and 
children of every class, deadening all effort, para- 
lysing all commerce, and defeating all attempts to 
stay it. 

Walking in the streets of London, men sud- 
denly became aware that an ever-increasing 
number of houses were marked with the fatal 
red cross on the door, accompanied by the 
pathetic prayer, " Lord, have mercy upon us." 
The sign was familiar enough to those who had 
lived through the terrible visitation of 1603; and 
that of 1625, which had devastated so many 
homes. Since those days the population of Lon- 
don had almost doubled, and it was little short 
of half a million when the plague broke out. But 
if the population of England had increased, one 
condition throughout the large towns remained 
16 



226 INSANITARY CONDITIONS 

the same. They were all badly drained ; the streets 
were narrow, dark, and dirty ; the water was 
insufficient for the needs of the people. Cleanli- 
ness was little considered in these days. Rubbish 
from the houses was shot into the street, where 
it lay about in heaps with rotten fruit, ashes, dead 
cats and dogs, and other filth, till kindly rains 
swept all together into the nearest stream or 
river. 

"Sweepings from butchers' stalls, dung, guts, and 

blood, 
Drown'd puppies, stinking sprats, all drench'd in mud, 
Dead cats and turnip tops, came tumbling down the 

flood." 

And if gross ignorance prevailed with regard 
to sanitary matters, gross ignorance likewise pre- 
vailed with regard to medical precautions. This 
is amply illustrated by the very inadequate reme- 
dies suggested to allay the plague when English- 
men were dying by hundreds, till " the nights were 
too short to bury the dead." 

One lady beseeches her young nephew " to wear 
a quill as is filled up with quicksilver and sealed 
up with hard wax and served up in a silk thing 
with a string to wear about the neck; this is as 
sartine as anything is to keep from taking the 



SUGGESTED REMEDIES 227 

Plague." " The quicksilver," she adds, " must be 
corked up fust and then sealed, for itt tis nitty 
for ones teth and eies." Further she recommends 
" Lente figs in readiness in case any of the family 
should have a swelling, for when roast and mashed 
together with a little mustard they will heal the 
sores." " Take the mistletoe which grows upon a 
oak-tree," advises another amateur, "dry it and 
beat it to powder and give as much of it as will 
lie upon a sixpence three mornings together." 

This, at any rate, must be harmless. Very 
unpleasing is this cure against the infection : 
" Take of mummie (man's flesh hardened) cut 
small 4 ozs., spirit of wine lo ozs. Put them 
into a glazed vessel and set in Horse dung to 
digest for the space of one month," or " Take 
the Brains of a young man that hath died 
a violent death together with its membranes. 
Arteries, Veins, Nerves and all the pith of the 
Back bone ; bruise these in a stone mortar till 
they become a kind of pap, then put as much of 
the Spirits of wine as will cover three fingers' 
breadth, digest for half a year in Horse dung and 
take a drop or two in water once a day." The 
College of Physicians prescribed for the stricken 
people : " Take a great onion, hollow it and put 



228 REVIVAL OF TRADE 

into it a fig, rue cut small and a dram of Venice 
treacle (consisting of vipers, white wine, opium, 
liquorice, red roses, &c.) close stopt in a wet paper, 
roasted in the embers." This poultice was to be 
applied to the great tumours which were such a 
distinctive feature of the plague. For " Goddard's 
Drops" the King paid ^6,000, but men fell to 
disputing whether they were made from the skull 
of a hanged man and dried viper or from volatile 
spirit of raw silk rectified with oil of cinnamon. 
Tobacco was considered a preventive of the 
plague, and Eton boys were ordered to smoke 
every morning while it lasted. But when all was 
said and done, still the great remedy lay in flight. 
The King, Queen, and Court, doctors and clergy, 
for the most part, left the stricken city. So 
passed the melancholy summer of 1665. 

When the disease had carried away some 
hundred thousand of London's inhabitants, it 
stopped, shops reopened, trade revived, and 
slowly Londoners returned to their homes. The 
coaches, which had only been running for the 
past few years from the " George Inn, Aldersgate," 
every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, reaching 
Salisbury in two days and York in four days, 
once more started with passengers. Travelling 



FLYING COACHES 229 

by coach was no unmixed pleasure in these early 
days of the Restoration. Like other innova- 
tions, it was strongly opposed. " These coaches," 
wrote a contemporary, " are one of the greatest 
mischiefs that hath happened of late years to the 
kingdom, mischievous to the public, destructive to 
trade, and prejudicial to lands." Despite opposi- 
tion the coaches increased both in number and in 
speed, till, attaining the breakneck speed of fifty 
miles a day, they were dignified by the name of 
" Flying Coaches." The roads were very bad, the 
ruts deep and dangerous ; not infrequently the 
whole coach and its occupants was upset ; the 
difficulties and discomforts were inconceivably 
great. But even these were as nothing compared to 
the very real danger which beset the travellers of 
the seventeenth century. To-day the mounted 
and masked highwayman is an unknown per- 
sonage, except in romance ; then, he was a 
genuine terror to the stoutest-hearted English- 
man, for whom he lay in wait on every main 
road or lonely common in the country. The 
waste tracts which bordered the highways from 
London to the provinces were haunted by these 
robbers and thieves. Hounslow Heath, Finchley 
Common, Epping Forest, were famous for 



230 COFFEE-HOUSES 

highwaymen even in broad daylight. Hence 
the drivers of stage-coaches, as well as the 
occupants, were fully armed, and no traveller 
ventured forth without pistols, blunderbuss, 
swords, bullets, and a horn of gunpowder. Every 
danger was increased as darkness came on, 
and all were glad to seek the friendly shelter 
of the wayside inns, famous for their comfort, 
freedom, and hospitality. Here, too, the mounted 
postman was sometimes forced to seek refuge, 
though he was supposed to journey through 
the night with his mail-bags at the rate of five 
miles an hour. He carried the famous news- 
letters, published twice a week in London, to 
the distant towns, where they were eagerly de- 
voured. The news which filled two small pages 
was for the most part collected in the coffee- 
houses, which were an innovation of this age. 
It has been said that the " history of coffee- 
houses, ere the invention of clubs, was that of 
the manners, the morals, and the politics of a 
people." 

In the year 1656 a Turkish merchant intro- 
duced coffee as a novelty into London, but 
wearying of the constant intrusion of curious 
people wishing to taste the new beverage, he 



TEA 231 

deputed to an attendant the sale of his coffee to 
those who liked to pay for it. Roset set up his 
coffee-house in Lombard Street with a portrait 
of himself as a sign over the door. Other drinks 
were soon admitted besides coffee, and we get 
this advertisement in a current news-letter of 
the day: "That excellent and by all physicians 
approved China Drink called the Chinaman's 
Tcha, by other nations Tay alias Tee is sold at 
the Sultanes Head, a cophee house by the Royal 
Exchange, London." But as yet this newly 
imported tea was very expensive, costing in 
1660 as much as from £s to ;^io a pound. " I 
did send for a cup of tea (a China drink) of which 
I had never drank before," said Pepys in this 
same year, adding two years later, " Home, and 
there find my wife making of tea, a drink which 
the Pothicary tells her is good for her cold and 
defluxions." 

The coffee-houses soon increased mightily in 
number and in importance. " Jonathan's " was 
opened by an apprentice of that name ; the 
" Rainbow," by a barber in Fleet Street, and 
many others were crowded with customers from 
morning to night. It was not long before they 
departed from their first uses, and each was 



232 BRANDY INTRODUCED 

patronised by a distinct and separate class of 
society. Thus all the physicians would collect at 
one to consult together about their profession, at 
another the Puritans would assemble to discuss 
their views of life. 

There was the Quaker's coffee-house, where no 
healths were drunk, no oaths uttered, no colours 
to be seen. There was " Will's," frequented by 
our friend Pepys. 

" ' As I remember/ said the sober Mouse, 
'I've heard much talk of the Wits' coffee-house'; 
' Thither,' says Brindle, ' thou shalt go and see 
Priests sipping coffee, Sparks and Poets tea.'" 

Though most coffee-houses could produce sup- 
plies of brandy and such old-world beverages 
as " mum," " red streak," " black cordial," spiced 
ale, &c., yet there was seldom any riotous drink- 
ing, swearing, or quarrelling. This was reserved 
for the taverns, where constantly disgraceful 
scenes took place, not infrequently ending in 
bloodshed. Many and various were the drinks 
sold here. Spanish wines were very popular ; 
there were the well-known drinks canary, sack, 
sack-posset, sherry, Burgundy, claret. Spirits 
were expensive and little drunk. But the 



HARD DRINKING 233 

taverns were running with " mum," which was 
ale brewed with wheat instead of hops ; " buttered 
ale," which contained no hops, but was warm 
and flavoured with sugar and cinnamon ; " lamb's 
wool," made of roast apple pulp, &c. Here is 
an old receipt for one of their favourite drinks 
called "Cock Ale" : "Take lo gallons of ale and 
a large cock, the older the better ; parboil the 
cock, flea him and stamp him in a stone mortar 
till his bones are broken. Put the cock into 2 
quarts of sack and put to it 3 lbs. of raisins of 
the sun stoned, some blades of mace and a few 
cloves ; put all these into a canvas bag, put the 
ale and bag together in the vessel ; in a week 
or nine days' time bottle it up and leave the same 
to ripen." 

Hard drinking was the fashion. Members of 
Parliament found it hard to keep sober. Pepys 
rarely passed a day without resorting to some 
tavern for a morning drink or a pint of wine 
after dinner. We find him, being slightly more 
sober than Sir William Penn, undertaking to 
conduct that gentleman safely through the streets 
of London. And thus these merry, careless days 
passed away. The short and troubled reign of 
James H. brought little change in social affairs, 



234 END OF STUART DYNASTY 

and as the Stuart Dynasty drew to its close, 
" costume, manners, the whole tone of society, 
went on a downward course with breakneck 
speed." 



CHAPTER XVIII 

Circa 1689 — 1702 

AFTER THE REVOLUTION 

" To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow 
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, 
To the last syllable of recorded time ; 
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
The way to dusty death." 

Shakspere. 

WITH the landing of William and Mary on 
English shores, the tide turned, and to 
a period of careless irresponsibility, uproarious 
mirth, and general masquerading succeeded an 
age of earnest sobriety. Weightier matters now 
received the attention of our forefathers, and 
there was less of that incessant scandal and 
gossip which had occupied society under the 
Merry Monarch. We can picture Englishmen 

of the day eagerly discussing the new state of 

935 



236 CHANGES AT COURT 

affairs at home in coffee-house and tavern under 
the King and Queen, nephew and daughter to 
him who had so lately made good his escape to 
Paris. They would comment on the new Court 
at Whitehall, on the unsociable, stern, and for- 
bidding manners of William, on his carelessness 
in dress, his foreign accent, his want of geniality. 
" His freezing look, his silence, the dry and 
concise answers which he uttered, when he could 
keep silence no longer, disgusted noblemen and 
gentlemen who had been accustomed to be 
slapped on the back by their Royal masters, 
called Jack or Harry, congratulated about race 
cups or rallied about actresses." All this social 
freedom was at an end now. If the King 
appeared at all in public, he stood among the 
gay crowds of courtiers and ladies, silent and 
abstracted, rarely smiling, never jesting. Never 
was he heard to swear, never was he seen at a 
theatre. Hunting and gambling were his re- 
creations, and it must have been some consolation 
to our Tory forefathers to learn that the King 
could lose ;^4,ooo at a single sitting. His wife 
disliked gossip and scandal as much as he did ; 
when courtiers prattled to her of duels, debts, 
and elopements, she replied by asking them if 



HAMPTON COURT 237 

they had ever read her favourite sermon by 
Dr. Tillotson on evil speaking. 

More marked still might have been the 
contrast of society under William and Mary 
had not the new King's health suffered severely 
from his brief sojourn at Whitehall Court. The 
air of Westminster, the thick fogs, the river 
floods, which in spring washed the courts of his 
palace, the " smoke of sea-coal from the hundred 
thousand chimneys," the fumes of filth, which, 
notwithstanding the plague and fire, was still 
allowed to accumulate in the streets — all these 
told on a delicate constitution, and he was 
advised to remove to the purer air of Hampton 
Court. Built under the Tudors, the apartments 
were now too old-fashioned for the requirements 
of the seventeenth century, and it was elaborately 
remodelled. As William had laid out his gardens 
at the Hague, so now he had the famous gardens 
at Hampton Court laid out in the stiff formal 
style which had been adopted at Versailles. 
He introduced into England waterworks of 
quaint forms, parterres with fountains and jets 
of water and formal cascades, all designed by 
Dutch gardeners. They exaggerated the old 
manner of clipping trees and overcrowded gardens 



238 EARLY TEA-SERVICE 

with grotesque shapes of yew and box. Though 
the " tulip fever " was by this time subsiding, 
Dutch bulbs were very much planted, as they 
lent themselves to the stiff style of laying out 
geometrical patterns and borders. If the par- 
terres were ingenious, so also was the labyrinth 
at Hampton Court, which was devised at this 
time, and which has since puzzled so many 
generations of holiday visitors in modern times. 
Mary, who had acquired a taste for China por- 
celain at the Hague, put up a number of curious 
images and vases at Hampton Court ; the fashion 
spread far and wide, till no great house in 
England was deemed complete without a museum 
of grotesque ornaments. Indeed, the Queen's 
own tea-service of Oriental china was famous ; 
her cups were without handles, proportioned to 
the little round teapot. She, too, was the first 
to introduce the tea urn into England, for she 
passionately loved the new dish of tea, which 
was becoming fashionable, and which was bought 
for her at 66s. a pound. 

But the King was not the only person who 
sought health away from London in the 
seventeenth century. It was becoming the 
fashion for persons of note to resort to some 



BATH 239 

watering-place, such as Bath or Tunbridge Wells, 
there to take the medicinal waters, which had 
long been known to be beneficial. Bath, or The 
Bath, as it was called at this time, occupied a 
prominent position in the social life of these 
times. Thither, during the summer months, 
flocked the rank and fashion of England, not 
always, it is true, for the sake of the waters, but 
" to divert themselves with good company." 
There was room for some fifty in the bath, 
together with their attendants, and here every 
morning perfumed ladies and " vigorous sparks " 
amused themselves in the water, while spectators 
looked down on them from a gallery. After 
some two hours in the water, which apparently 
was rarely changed, each was wrapped in a sheet 
and carried home in a chair lined with blankets. 
The rest of the day was spent in amusements 
of every description. Bath grew more popular 
year by year, and played a large part in the 
lives of " persons of quality " in the two 
succeeding centuries. 

These resorts were for the wealthy only; but 
in the seventeenth century our ancestors were 
growing very wealthy, for the great middle 
class were making England the chief commercial 



240 GROWTH OF TRADE 

country in the world. It was a period of tran- 
sition, from the plough to the loom, from 
the spinning-wheel to the factory, from the age 
of tools to the age of machinery. The fact 
of the ever-increasing wealth produced by these 
changes is amply illustrated by the establish- 
ment of the Bank of England in 1694. The 
Huguenots who had taken refuge in England 
after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes had 
brought with them their secrets and their industry. 
Factories for silk, beaver hats, paper, velvet, 
damask, cutlery, glass, pottery, &c., rose in our 
midst. It was the South of England, not the 
North, that first became famous for the manu- 
facturing industry of the kingdom. As wool was 
justly held to be " the foundation of England's 
riches," so now the exportation of wool to other 
countries was forbidden. Protection ruled supreme, 
and the manufacturing trade was thus concentrated 
within the country, though our forefathers proved 
themselves to be brilliant smugglers during this 
and succeeding periods. This rapid industrial 
progress put plenty of money into the pockets of 
our forefathers. Trade was less despised than of 
yore. Proud old aristocrats were pleased to marry 
their daughters to wealthy young merchants, and 



EDUCATION OF BOYS 241 

the old social barriers were partially broken 
down. 

The trading classes, we are told by a con- 
temporary, are " the best Body in the Nation, 
generous, sober, and charitable. So that while 
the People are so immersed in their own affairs, 
there is a better spirit stirring in our cities, more 
knowledge, more zeal, and more charity, with a 
great deal more of Devotion." 

But amid all classes the ignorance was lament- 
able. A finished education for a boy of this 
period consisted in a " little Latin and less Greek," 
beaten into him either at one of the public schools 
or at home by the French tutor who had replaced 
the domestic chaplain of long ago. Having been 
whipped through a little grammar and arithmetic, 
he was taught to dance, as also " how to enter a 
room, how to carry the head and hands and to 
turn out the toes." Fencing and the use of one 
stringed instrument, such as the lute, guitar, or 
violin, completed education at an early age. If a 
boy went to the University, he entered it at 
fifteen or sixteen. It was eminently an unhappy 
age for schoolboys, and this advertisement is by 
no means uncommon in the papers of the day : 
"A gentleman's only Child is run from School; 

17 



242 FATHERS AND SONS 

he is about twelve years of age with light Cloathes 
lin'd with red, a well-favour'd brisk Boy with a 
fair old Wig ; he has been in Spain and Portugal, 
which makes his Parents fear that some Ship may 
entertain him." - 

Indeed, it was the fashion to travel abroad, and 
the finish to a boy's education was for him to 
make the grand tour in Europe, accompanied 
either by father or tutor. Slow and tedious was 
the travelling on the Continent by heavy, rumbling 
coaches, while the accommodation at night was 
uncomfortable and unhealthy. Boys were on 
distant terms with their parents, addressing them 
on bended knee as " Most honoured Father, 
Sir," and this in days of tender endearment and 
affection. " Child," writes a father to his sixteen- 
year-old son, " I shall send you 2 lb. of Choco- 
late upon next Monday by the carrier. ... I 
have a new shirt here ready for you, and shall 
buy muslin cravats and ruffles against you come 
to me." 

But if kind, they could be equally severe. 

" Child," writes an angry father to his really 
good little boy at school, " I have received a letter 
from your master, Mr. Blackwell, who complains 
of you in your business, and that you are idly 



EDUCATION OF GIRLS 243 

and evilly inclined. You have much deceived 
me, your father, who, blinded with love for you, 
thought you no less than a young Saint, but now 
to my grief perceive that you are growing very 
fast to be an old Devil." 

The girls were taught still less. A lady was 
considered sufficiently learned if she could just 
read and write. Her spelling and grammar were 
very deficient, her knowledge on ordinary matters 
lamentable. Even the household duties to which 
she had formerly been trained were now neglected. 
Little girls were sent to boarding schools in 
London, which advertised themselves in this way : 
" Mrs. Elizabeth Tutchin continues to keep her 
school at Highgate, where sober young Gentle- 
women may be taught whatsoever is necessary to 
the Accomplishment of that sex." To be a 
complete gentlewoman was to be able to dance 
and sing, to play on the bass viol, virginals, spinet, 
and guitar, to make waxwork, japan, paint upon 
glass, to make sweetmeats and sauces. " To- 
morrow I intend to carry my girl to school/' 
wrote an Englishman of this age of his little 
eight-year-old daughter. So Molly went to 
school at Chelsea, where she learnt to dance 
gracefully and to "japan boxes," which art cost 



244: MAERIAGE THE ONLY VOCATION 

a guinea entrance fee and ten shillings extra for 
materials, neither of which items was grudged by 
her father. " I find you have a desire to learn to 
Japan and I approve of it," he writes to her, " and 
so I shall of anything that is good and virtuous, 
and therefore learn in God's name all good things, 
for I admire all accomplishments that will render 
you considerable and lovely in the sight of God 
and man." 

It is to be feared that the capacity to please 
man was the principal object in Molly's education, 
for marriage was as yet the only vocation for 
women and union to some wealthy gentleman the 
sole ambition of every father for his daughter. 
The emptiness of women's lives is somewhat 
revealed by this supposed extract from a lady's 
diary of a slightly later period. 

" Wednesday^ 8-10. — Drank two dishes of choco- 
late in bed, and fell asleep after 'em. 

" 10-12. — Eat a slice of bread and butter, drank 
a dish of black tea, read the Spectator, 

" ii-i. — At my toilet, try'd a new head. Gave 
orders for Veney to be combed and washed. 
Mem., I look best in blue. 

" I. — Called for my flowered Handkerchief, 
worked half a violet leaf in it — eyes ached and 



WOMEN'S LIVES 245 

head out of order. Threw by my work and 
read. 

" 3-4. — Dined. 

"4-12. — Dressed, went abroad and play'd Crimp 
till midnight. Found Mrs. Spitely at home. Con- 
versation : Mrs. Brilliant's necklace false stones ; 
Old Lady Loveday going to be married to a 
young Fellow that is not worth a groat ; Miss 
Prue gone into the Country ; Tom Townely has 
real hair. 

" Twelve o'clock at Night. — Went to bed. 
Melancholy dreams." 

Little enough education was obviously required 
to spend life in this fashion. There was little 
domestic life, as we understand it to-day, in town ; 
men spent their evenings at the coffee-house or 
tavern or theatre, and women were left to amuse 
themselves and gossip and play cards as they 
liked. Of course, they went to the theatre too, 
but often enough the plays were of such a coarse 
nature that they had to go masked, for fear of 
recognition. In the country social life, if still 
trivial, was of a more wholesome nature, as indeed 
it ever has been and will be. Even so, men and 
women grew prematurely old in these days : girls 
were introduced into society at the age of thirteen 



246 SMALL-POX 

or fourteen, boys went to the University at fifteen 
or sixteen. Early marriages and large families 
weighed heavily on both sexes at a time when 
infant mortality was tremendous and infection 
stalked unchecked through the land. Fevers, 
agues, measles, and small-pox carried off whole 
families or scored young faces with fatal blemish. 
One recalls the pathetic scene, so graphically 
sketched by Thackeray, of Lady Castlewood 
after the small-pox. " When the marks of the 
disease cleared away they did not, it is true, 
leave furrows or scars on her face (except one, 
perhaps, on her forehead over her left eye), but 
the delicacy of her rosy colour and complexion 
was gone ; her eyes had lost their brilliancy, her 
hair fell, and her face looked older. It was as if 
a coarse hand had rubbed off the delicate tints of 
that sweet picture and brought it, as one has seen 
some unskilful painting cleaners do, to the dead 
colour. Also it must be owned that for a year or 
two after the malady her Ladyship's nose was 
swollen and redder." And the sequel, despite 
courtly flattery, how little Esmond broke out 
honestly protesting that his mistress was no 
longer so handsome as she was, "on which Lady 
Castlewood gave a rueful smile and a look into a 



FUNERALS 247 

little Venice glass she had, which showed her, I 
suppose, that what the stupid boy said was only 
too true, for she turned away from the glass and 
her eyes filled with tears." 

In 1694 the Queen herself was attacked and 
died in a few days of this malignant disease. 
Inoculation and vaccination were as yet un- 
known, and there was nothing to stay its ravages. 
The common treatment seems to have been a 
black powder, made of thirty or forty live toads 
burnt to black ashes. When the Queen sickened, 
her physicians had recourse to their ordinary 
remedy for all the ills of life, that of bleeding. 
But there was no cure for the virulent small-pox 
of the seventeenth century, and at the early age 
of thirty-two Mary died. 

Royal funerals in these days were outrageous in 
their display of pomp, and this exaggeration found 
an echo in funerals of all classes of society. No 
pains were spared to make a funeral of the poorest 
both costly and miserable. The funeral invita- 
tions sent out were ghastly eulogies of the dead, 
decorated with grinning skulls, pickaxes, hour- 
glasses, and cross-bones, material ideas entirely 
crushing the spiritual. To each mourner gloves, 
hat-bands and mourning rings were presented. 



248 MOURNINa 

sometimes as many as two hundred rings being 
given away at a cost of one pound each. To the 
chief mourners and near relations whole suits of 
mourning were presented ; physicians, apothe- 
caries, servants, &c., were all recipients of black 
garments. And, indeed, the mourning of these 
days did not stop here. Our ancestors put their 
whole beds into mourning, as well as their tables 
and chairs ; they hung their halls with black 
baize, and covered their cushions with black. We 
hear of a country gentleman mourning in two 
black taffety night clothes, a black nightcap, a 
black brush and comb, two black spice-bags, and 
slippers of black velvet ; besides these, he had 
black cloth doublets, black breeches and cloak, 
black bands for his black hats, some "old black 
taffety garters and new black ribbon roses." " I 
have a new black beaver hat for you," writes a 
father to his younger son on the death of a 
brother, "which I will send you in a little deal 
box, with a black crape hat-band, black mourning 
gloves and stockings and shoe-buckles, and three 
pairs of black buttons for wrist and neck. 

Funerals were preceded and followed by a good 
deal of drinking ; often wine boiled with sugar 
and cinnamon was served out to the guests on 



DEATH OF WILLIAM III 249 

their return from the long and trying ceremony. 
It is related by the keeper of a tavern in London 
that " a tun of red port " was drunk at his wife's 
burial by women only, for it is noteworthy that at 
this time no man went to a woman's funeral, nor 
did a woman go to a man's. 

William only survived his wife eight years, 
leaving the throne to his sister-in-law Anne, 
whose reign ushered in a period of change in the 
social lives of our forefathers. 



CHAPTER XIX 

Circa 1702 — 1714 

UNDER "GOOD QUEEN ANNE" 

" Great voices of great lovers of their land 
All have departed, all return no more." 

Watson. 

UNLIKE her famous predecessor, Elizabeth, 
and her famous successor, Victoria, Queen 
Anne was a wife and mother long before she 
ascended the throne of England. A woman of 
thirty-seven, childless though the mother of seven- 
teen children, she had lived through momentous 
changes in her country's history. In the course 
of seventeen years her uncle, Charles II., had 
died, her father, James II., had fled from his 
kingdom, her sister Mary had reigned and 
died, and she herself had just lost her last child, 
the pathetic little Duke of Gloucester, but two 
years before the death of her brother-in-law, 

251 



252 THE QUEEN'S CHARACTER 

William III. And yet such was her apathetic 
disposition that she was collected, placid, and 
calm as she mounted the throne of her ancestors 
amid the shouts and rejoicings of her loyal 
subjects. But if these subjects added to the 
prestige of England's arms, increased her trade, 
and created a literature famous enough to earn 
the title of the Augustan Age, it was not thanks 
to the encouragement or enlightened recognition 
of Queen Anne. A good enough woman herself, 
she influenced the morals of the Court ; she refused 
to attend theatres or other places of amusement, 
but occupied a good deal of time in writing letters 
to her favourite women friends. 

Of immense size, no one was fonder of a good 
dinner than the Queen. Indeed, she was im- 
moderate in her appetite : she was known to eat 
a whole fowl at a sitting ; she made herself ill 
over black-hearted cherries, and did herself serious 
injury by constantly sipping large quantities of 
rich chocolate. Most of our ancestors of this 
period began the day by a cup of chocolate, 
followed a few hours later by some green tea or 
ale, with some brawn to eat with it. But dinner, 
whether at two or three o'clock, was the meal of 
the day. 



INTRODUCTION OF PUDDING 253 

" The English eat a great deal at dinner," says a 
famous French traveller of these days. " Their 
supper is moderate : gluttons at noon and absti- 
nent at night. I always heard they were great 
flesh-eaters, and I found it true. I have known 
several people in England that never eat any 
bread ; they nibble a few crumbs, while they chew 
Meat by whole Mouthfuls. Generally speaking 
the English tables are not delicately served : the 
middling sort of people have ten or twelve sorts 
of common Meats which infallibly take their 
Turns at their Tables, and two dishes are their 
dinners ; a Pudding, for instance, and a piece of 
Roast Beef; another time they will have a piece 
of Boil'd Beef, and then they salt it some days 
beforehand and besiege it with five or six heaps of 
Cabbage, Carrots, Turnips, or some other Herbs or 
Roots, well pepper'd and salted and swimming in 
Butter : A leg of roast or boil'd mutton, dished 
up with the same dainties. Fowls, Pigs, Ox Tripes 
and Tongues, Rabbits, Pigeons, all well moistened 
with Butter. Two of these dishes, always served 
up one after the other, made the usual Dinner of a 
Substantial Gentleman or wealthy Citizen." But 
the French traveller becomes enthusiastic over the 
English pudding. " The pudding is a dish very 



254 MINCED PIE 

difficult to be described. Flour, milk, eggs, butter, 
sugar, suet, marrow, raisins, &c., are the most 
common ingredients of a pudding. They bake 
them in an oven, they boil them with meat, they 
make them fifty different ways. Blessed be he that 
invented Pudding. Ah, what an excellent thing is 
an English Pudding ! " We recognise our mince- 
pies and plum-pudding in another of his observa- 
tions. " Every family against Christmas makes a 
famous pye which they call Christmas pye. It is 
a great nostrum, the composition of this pasty : 
it is a most learned mixture of neat's tongues, 
chicken, eggs, sugar, raisins, lemon and orange 
peel, various kinds of spicery." This Christmas or 
minced pie was originally made in the shape of 
the manger wherein the Holy Infant was laid. 
"They also make," continues the astonished 
traveller, " a sort of soup with plums, which is in 
their language call'd plum-porridge." 

But there was still a great want of refinement in 
the food of these days. We find numerous receipts 
for marrow-puddings, mixtures of cocks' combs and 
hedgehog, and blood puddings were not uncommon. 

" Blood stuff'd in Skins is British Christian food, 
And France robs Marshes of the croaking Brood; 
Spongy Morells in strong Ragousts are found 
And in the Soupe the shmy Snail is drown'd." 



ORIGIN OF CLUBS 255 

Founded on the principle of eating and drinking 
were the clubs of Queen Anne's reign. The origin 
of these is quaintly put in an early number of the 
Spectator, written by Addison. "Man is said to 
be a Sociable Animal," he says, "and we may 
observe that we take all occasions and Pretences 
of forming ourselves into those little Nocturnal 
Assemblies, which are commonly known by the 
name of Clubs. When a Sett of Men find them- 
selves in any Particular, tho' never so trivial, they 
establish themselves into a kind of Fraternity and 
meet once or twice a week upon the Account of 
such a Fantastick Ressemblance." In this way 
started the club of Fat Men, in a room with 
two doors. If a candidate could make his way 
through the small door he was unqualified for 
membership, but if he stuck, folding doors were 
immediately thrown open and he was saluted as a 
brother ! In opposition to this, sprang up a club 
of Scarecrows and Skeletons, but a more serious 
undertaking was the famous Kit-Cat Club, which 
met at a mutton-pie house near Temple Bar, kept 
by one Christopher Cat, whose pies were humor- 
ously termed " kit-cats." It became the rendez- 
vous of Whig chiefs, men favourable to the 
succession of the House of Hanover. Each 



256 WOMEN SMOKING 

member presented the founder with his own por- 
trait painted by Kneller. This interesting collection 
still exists at Bayfordbury near Hertford. Special 
canvasses were made (36 in. by 28), still called 
to-day the Kit-Cat size. Other clubs soon arose ; 
among the most famous were the October Club, 
the Beef Steak Club, and the Calves* Head Club. 
Though these were confined to the gentlemen and 
wealthy tradesmen of the day, the little taverns 
had their own fraternities. Here are some rules 
in the Twopenny Club, for the poorer classes of 
Queen Anne's day: — 

" Every member shall fill his pipe out of his 
own box. 

"If any member swears or curses, his neighbour 
may give him a kick upon the shins. 

" If any member tell stories in the Club that are 
not true, he shall forfeit for every third Lie one 
Half-Penny. 

"If any member brings his wife into the club, he 
shall pay for whatever she drinks or smokes." 

It is difficult to remember that women and 
children smoked as a matter of course in these 
days. It is even asserted that children were sent 
to school with pipes in their satchels and that the 
schoolmaster made a pause in the course of lessons 



SNUFF-TAKING 257 

for all to smoke. In 1702 we get a glimpse of a 
" sickly child of three years old filling its pipe of 
Tobacco and smoking it as a man of threescore 
years, and after that a second and third pipe, 
without the least concern, as it had done for the 
past year." Tobacco was kept in brass boxes, 
often beautifully engraved and embossed. But 
the snuff-boxes of this period testify to the in- 
creasing popularity of snuff-taking. Here again 
women played their part. 

" I have writ to you three or four times to desire 
you would take notice of an important custom 
the Women have lately fallen into, of taking Snuff. 
This silly Trick is attended by such a coquet air 
in some Ladies and such a sedate masculine air in 
others that I cannot tell which to complain of 
most, but they are to me equally disagreeable." 
So writes the editor of the Spectator^ a paper 
which reflects the manners and fashions of the 
latter part of Queen Anne's reign with truth 
and humour. The first number came out on 
Thursday, March i, 171 1. It consisted of a little 
single sheet headed by a couple of Latin lines 
and written by Addison. The whole first number 
is taken up with an account of himself and his. 
venture, while the second, issued on the following 

18 



258 FIRST DAILY NEWSPAPER 

day and written by Richard Steele, contains an 
account of those concerned in the work and the 
famous Sir Roger de Coverley. These little daily 
sheets appeared with the morning coffee in every 
fashionable household, and their influence on the 
society of the day was enormous, though already 
a daily newspaper was in circulation. 

When Queen Anne came to the throne there 
were some nine or ten newspapers issued three 
times a week, the chief among them being the 
London Posty Flying Post, English Post, and Dyer's 
News Letter. Three days after her accession the 
first daily newspaper in England came out, under 
the name of the Daily Couranf, a forerunner of 
that mighty press which is such a marked feature 
of our own day. Its size was fourteen inches by 
eight, a single sheet printed on one side only. 
It contained news from Naples, Rome, Vienna, 
Frankfort, Liege and Paris, and at the end in 
small print it justified its existence thus : " This 
Courant will be publish'd daily, being designed 
to give all the Material news as soon as every 
Post arrives, and is confin'd to half the Compass 
to save the Publick at least half the Impertinences 
of ordinary News Papers.'' 

The circulation of these daily papers was 



MEANS OF COMMUNICATION 259 

greatly helped by the penny post, which had 
been in existence in London since 1683. "Every 
two Hours," says the observant French traveller, 
"you may write to any Part of the City or 
Suburbs; he that receives it pays a Penny and you 
give nothing when you put it into the Post ; but 
when you write into the Country, both he that 
writes and he that receives pays each a Penny." 
In 1709 distance still regulated the price of letters ; 
thus, to send a single sheet 80 miles cost 2d., 
a letter to Dublin was 6d., to the West Indies, 
IS. 3d. Other means of communication were also 
increasing. Hackney carriages had increased till 
there were now some 800 plying in London and 
the suburbs. They had no glass and no springs, 
and it is hardly to be wondered at if people pre- 
ferred the sedan chair for short distances. Here 
they could see and be seen. By this means they 
were carried to the At Homes or " Days," as they 
were called, kept by every fashionable woman, 
when she received a formal circle of her acquain- 
tances of both sexes. It is curious to remember 
that at this time the formal salutation between 
men and women of every class was still the kiss. 
" The other day, entering a room adorned with the 
fair Sex," says a contemporary, " I offered, after 



260 HOODS 

the usual manner, to each of them a kiss, but one 
more scornful than the rest turned her Cheek." 
By means of the sedan chair the fine ladies and 
gentlemen of Queen Anne's time were carried 
to church, as much to show off their clothes 
as anything else. " All ladies who come to 
church in the New-fashioned Hoods are desired 
to be there before Divine Service begins, lest they 
divert the Attention of the Congregation," runs an 
advertisement in the Spectator of January, 17 12. 
These many-coloured hoods were supplanting the 
old commode, which was the favourite headgear of 
the early eighteenth century. The idea originated 
in a hunting party attended by Louis XIV. in 
France, at which the hair of Mademoiselle Font- 
ange, a favourite of the King's, became loose. She 
hastily tied her lace handkerchief round her head, 
and the effect produced was so pretty that the 
King begged her to keep it thus. Next day all 
the Court ladies appeared " colffee a la Fontange." 
The head-dress soon became elaborate. The hair 
was piled up high in front, and a wire frame 
covered with silk and trimmed with rows of lace 
and ribbons stood on the top. From each side 
hung broad ends of lace. It was very expensive, 
for all lace was real in those days, and enough for 



WIDE SKIRTS 261 

a cap of this kind cost £^o at the very least. 
It also varied considerably. " There is no such 
variable thing in Nature as a Lady's head-dress," 
says Addison. " Within my own memory I have 
known it rise and fall above 30 degrees. About 
ten years ago it shot up to a very great height, 
insomuch that the Female Part of our Species 
were much taller than men." 

Bodices were laced open in front, showing tight 
stays made of " Black Tabby Stitched lined with 
Flannel," and worn very low, with " tuckers " or 
" modesty pieces " round the top. They had elbow 
sleeves and frilled skirts, at the back of which 
a piece of drapery was bunched into panniers, 
while in front hung an apron. These skirts grew 
wider and wider at the hips, till the ever-observant 
Spectator felt bound to draw attention to them : 
" The petticoats, which began to heave and swell 
before you left us, are now blown up into a most 
enormous concave and rise every day more and 
more." False hips in 1709 soon gave way to a 
hoop or mild compressible whalebone frame-work 
under the skirt or petticoat. These petticoats 
were numerous and variable, made of rich material ; 
we hear of black Russell petticoats flowered, of ash 
colour silk quilted petticoats, of scarlet and gold 



262 EXPENSE OF WIGS 

Atlas petticoats edged with silver, of yellow chintz 
petticoats, black velvet petticoats, &c. But if 
women were thus fanciful over their hoop petti- 
coats, men were quite as particular over their 
wigs. The wig dominated all good dressing, 
and was to be found on men and even boys 
of every class of society. Extravagant sums 
of money were expended on them. Though 
three guineas was a fair price, as much as forty 
guineas was frequently spent. While the full- 
bottomed wig was most usual at this time, the 
tie wig and the bob wig were both coming into 
fashion, though not approved of by the Queen. 
" I suppose his lordship will come to Court next 
time in his nightcap," she was heard to exclaim 
when one of her Ministers appeared before her 
in one of the new tie wigs, so familiar in the 
Georgian epoch. To be in perfect curl was the 
essential point, and numerous advertisements of 
hair-curling fluids appear in the current papers, 
in case the wig " be out of curl by the pressing 
of the hat or riding in windy and rainy weather." 
Such was the effeminacy of some of the men 
at this time that they used to carry ivory or 
tortoiseshell combs, and comb their wigs while 
sitting in the Park or in the theatre. Quaint 



MEN'S DEESS 263 

enough, too, were their long coats, with skirts 
stiffly held out with whalebone. " The skirt of your 
fashionable coats forms as large a circumference 
as our petticoats ; as these are set out with whale- 
bone, so are those with wire," says the Spectator. 
Add to this the new cravat or neck-cloth, the 
cocked hat, the fine holland shirt with ruffles, the 
silk stockings, the high-heeled shoes with buckles, 
the gloves, the silk handkerchief for snuff-taking 
and the indispensable sword, and the gentleman 
of Queen Anne's time is complete. It is a relief 
to find that they despised the newly-introduced 
umbrella, which was growing in popularity with 
women, in order to shade them from the sun and 
rain. Up to this time their only screen had been 
a fan, and in bad weather they had stayed within 
doors. Heavy, clumsy contrivances were these 
early umbrellas. They were used to hold over 
bare-headed clergy at funerals ; sometimes it was 
possible to borrow one at a coffee-house, but it 
was some time before they became ordinary and 
indispensable possessions to every one, as they 
are to-day. 

The manners of the early eighteenth century 
may have improved since the days when Queen 
Elizabeth thought it no indignity to spit at the 



264 ETIQUETTE 

courtier who annoyed her, but Queen Anne's 
manners were not of the best. She would sit 
and gnaw the end of her fan when bored with 
her subjects ; she would frequently over-eat herself, 
though warned of the consequences. Etiquette- 
books of the period warn people not to wipe their 
knife and fork on the tablecloth, but rather on 
the newly-invented napkin or Doiley, made by 
a linen-draper of that name, as also to abstain 
from picking their teeth with their forks. But 
if these were the manners and customs of our 
ancestors at home, they were behaving with all 
the old strength and courage of their stalwart 
forefathers abroad. Queen Anne's soldiers and 
Queen Anne's sailors are famous to-day, and 
such victories as Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, 
and Malplaquet had not been seen since the days 
of Henry V. England was rising to her position 
as the leading commercial country of her day, 
while in the world of letters she was no whit 
behind. It was a period of energy, wit, and 
genius, an age of vast enterprise crowned with 
success, in the midst of which " it is half ludicrous, 
half pathetic to turn to the central figure of all, 
Anne Stuart, a fat, placid, middle-aged woman, 
full of infirmities, with little about her of the 



QUEEN ANNE 265 

picturesque yet artificial brightness of her time 
or of her race, and no gleam of reflection in her to 
answer to the wit and genius which have made her 
age so illustrious." 



CHAPTER XX 

Circa 17 14 — 1727 
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 

"The'harvest gathered in the fields of the Past is to be 
brought home for the use of the Present." — Dr. Arnold. 

OUEEN ANNE, dying without heirs, was 
succeeded by her cousin, George, Elector 
of Hanover. A short, elderly, pale-faced man, 
addicted to drink, low in his tastes and conversa- 
tion, knowing not a word of English and, moreover, 
disliking English ways and English manners — 
this was the man " suddenly thrust " upon the 
English people and proclaimed King of England. 
The mass accepted him with stolid indifference. 
It was not likely that he would interfere with 
existing conditions. The old sentiment of " blind 
unconditional homage " to the King was fast dying 
out. Stronger forces were at work. The romance 
of kingship was at an end. Moreover, the nation 



268 GEORGE I. 

was solidly Protestant and unmoved by the 
pathetic appeals of the Pretender's claims. 

So the new King reluctantly took up his abode 
in his new capital. His court was German ; he 
had to converse with his Ministers in Latin ; his 
divorced wife was pining away her life in a 
gloomy castle across the waters ; his eldest son 
and heir was with him to learn English, but his 
heart was in his beloved Hanover. The ways of 
the English were passing strange to him. 

" This is a strange country," he said. " The first 
morning after my arrival at St. James's, I looked 
out of the window and saw a park with canals 
which they told me were mine. The next day, the 
ranger of my park sent me a fine brace of carp out 
of my canal, and I was told I must give to the 
servant five guineas for bringing me my own carp 
out of my own canal in my own park." 

There was much, indeed, to astonish him in 
London. Though the population of his kingdom 
was but about a fifth of what it is to-day, yet • 
London with its seven hundred thousand in- 
habitants was considered a vast city, absorbing 
as it did one-tenth of the whole population of 
England and Wales. What must he have thought 
of London's great highway, the Thames, with its 



HANOVERIAN LONDON 269 

variety of shipping, its swift little passenger boats 
plying incessantly for hire, carrying the smart 
world from place to place, the heavier craft 
removing merchandise from wharf to wharf? 
What of the narrow little lanes and streets leading 
to the great river, edged with shops and wooden 
booths ? What of the stately red-brick houses 
built by Queen Anne on the fields which sur- 
rounded the Houses of Parliament? All houses 
at this time were difficult to find : they had no 
numbers, and could only be described as near the 
" Black Swan " or the " Red Lion," or some such 
sign. The paths were very narrow, divided from 
the road by a row of posts, and there was barely 
room for two persons to pass one another com- 
fortably. Towards the City these streets were 
crowded with cumbersome coaches, sedan chairs, 
wheelbarrows, perhaps full of oysters, porters 
bearing huge burdens, funeral coaches, wedding 
processions, all jostling along. The noise and 
smells must have rivalled our motor-possessed 
London of to-day. There were the shouts of 
chair-menders, broom-sellers, old-clothes men, 
street fighters, hawkers ; there was quarrelling, 
drinking, bell-ringing, and the creaking of many 
signboards on their rusty hinges as they swayed in 



270 INCREASING DRUNKENNESS 

the wind. There were no police, and in the watch- 
men who patrolled the streets the public had no 
confidence. 

"Prepare for death if e'er at night you roam, 
And sign your will before you pass from home," 

sang Johnson in a period even later than this. 

If, with a wave of philanthropy, hospitals were 
rising into prominence, coffee-houses, chocolate- 
houses, taverns, and clubs were increasing almost 
daily. To them flocked all the wit and fashion of 
London as before, but a pernicious beverage had 
recently been added, and the wholesale distribu- 
tion of gin, that " curse of English life," made the 
early Hanoverian age one of the most drunken on 
record. 

" As the English," says a contemporary writer, 
"returning from the wars in the Holy Land 
brought the foul disease of leprosy, so in our 
fathers' days the English returning from the 
service in the Netherlands brought with them the 
foul vice of drunkenness." 

Though our forefathers had drunk heavily ot 

, beers and wines in the days of the Restoration, 

the introduction of coffee had diminished this to 

some extent. Throughout the reign of Anne, the 



PORT WINE 271 

upper classes had indulged freely in drink, and 
Ministers had thought it no shame to appear 
drunk in the very presence of the Queen. But it 
was not till the year 1724 that the passion for gin- 
drinking affected the populace. It spread with 
the violence of an epidemic, until it grew into a 
national vice that the enlightened age of Victoria 
failed to eradicate. While some two million 
gallons were distilled in 1714, over five millions 
were distilled in 1735. Retailers gloried in the 
announcement that their customers could be made 
drunk for a penny, dead drunk for twopence, and 
could have straw on which to lie and recover 
free. One can hardly wonder at the increase of 
crime, the growth of pauperism, and the appear- 
ance of new diseases. 

The enormous consumption of port wine by the 
upper classes, which had steadily increased since 
about 1700, had also increased the sufferings of 
our forefathers, who were already predisposed to 
attacks of gout, but port was an expensive 
luxury and untouched by the poorer classes. 

We are told that " thieves and robbers are now 
become more desperate and savage than they 
had ever appeared since mankind was civilised." 
Certainly smuggling was the fashion of the day. 



272 PUNISHMENTS 

and armed men could load up their waggons 
on the open shore in defiance of the Customs 
officers, and encounter no opposition. Tea, coffee, 
tobacco, rum, and brandy were freely smuggled 
into the country, and men of note had no con- 
science against stowing away such goods in their 
cellars. The plunder of shipwrecked sailors 
lured on to the rocks by false lights was not 
uncommon, and only shows the imperfect civilisa- 
tion of this time. The punishments for stealing 
were still very severe. Death was the penalty to 
be paid for stealing a sheep or a horse in the 
eighteenth century, or 40s. from a dwelling-house, 
5s. from a shop, or I2jd. from a pocket, while a man 
might attempt -murder or take the life of another, 
burn a house, commit a highway robbery, and his 
crime be classed under " misdemeanours." The 
London of this age has been called the " City of 
the Gallows." Indeed, all over England they were 
terribly common, and to witness the death of a 
condemned criminal was among the rude amuse- 
ments of the eighteenth century. Such enormous 
crowds pressed to see the famous highwayman. 
Jack Shepherd, in gaol, before he paid the extreme 
penalty, that the keeper was estimated to have 
made ;^200 for showing him, while Dr. Dodd, a 



PUBLIC EXECUTIONS 273 

clergyman executed for forgery, was exhibited at 
2s. a head, for two hours, before being taken to the 
gallows. Criminals were always dressed in their 
best clothes, with white gloves, and they often 
carried nosegays of flowers given by friends and 
relations. It was the fashion to die merrily, as 
merrily as they had lived, and too often, to ensure 
the appropriate mirth, they drowned themselves 
in drink. When the day of execution came, the 
condemned men, thus brightly attired, were put 
into a cart, to be loudly cheered by the huge 
crowds awaiting them. 

"As clever Tom Clinch, while the rabble was bawling, 
Rode stately through Holborn to die at his calling, 
His waistcoat and stockings and breeches were white, 
His cap had a new cherry ribbon to tie't. 
The maids to the doors and the balconies ran, 
And said, 'Lack-a-day, he's a proper young man !' 
And as from the windows the ladies he spied, 
Like a beau in a box, he bowed low on each side." 

On his arrival at Tyburn, then a mere suburb of 
London, with open fields, *' the executioner stops 
the cart under one of the cross beams of the gibbet 
and fastens to that ill-favoured beam one end of 
the rope, while the other is round the wretch's 
neck. This done, he gives the horse a lash with 
19 



274 PRISONS 

his whip, away goes the cart, and there swings my 
gentleman kicking in the air. The hangman does 
not give himself the trouble to put them out of 
their pain ; but some of their friends or relations 
do it for them." 

But if such accounts as these are gruesome, 
more gruesome still are those which describe the 
terrible prisons in which many eighteenth-century 
debtors languished till they died. 

" A prison is the grave of the living, where they 
are shut up from the world, and the worms that 
gnaw upon them, their own thoughts, the gaoler 
and their creditors." Horrible, indeed, were the 
dungeons into which our forefathers were thrown 
for debt ; heavily laden with chains, with no regular 
allowance of food, their beds of straw only, with 
bad smells and dirt indescribable, they lingered in 
agony, till death relieved their sufferings. 

Of lesser punishments there were divers sorts all 
over the country. By the side of many a duck 
pond on the village green stood the stocks, wherein 
vagrants, druQkards and others were securely 
fastened by the heels until they had repented 
of their sins. Near by was the ducking-stool, 
wherein bakers who served underweight bread, 
witches, or scolding women were seated and 



LESSER PUNISHMENTS 275 

ducked three times into the muddy water, to cool 
" their choler and heat." 

"Down in the deep the stool descends, 
But here at first we miss our ends ; 
She mounts again and rages more 
Than ever vixen did before. . . . 
If so, my friends, pray let her take, 
A second turn into the lake. . . . 
No brawling wives, no furious wenches. 
No fire so hot, but water quenches." 

Added to these were the pillory, the branks or 
scold's bridle, the drunkard's cloak, the pruning 
knife for the excision of a culprit's ears, scissors 
for slitting his nostrils, thumbscrews and other 
extreme penalties. Every village had its 
whipping-post, for men and women were alike 
whipped at the " cart's tail " all over the country. 
Taken from prison, they were tied to the back 
of a cart, which was driven slowly through the 
streets, followed by a noisy crowd, while the 
miserable culprit was whipped till the skin was 
broken. And this was but i6o years ago. 

Notwithstanding all these most degrading 
punishments, pauperism continued to grow 
apace. It was not due to want of employment : 
there was work for all in the Georgian days. 



276 THE UNEMPLOYED 

" I affirm," says Defoe, " of my own knowledge, 
that when I have wanted a man for labouring 
work and offer 9s. a week to strolling fellows at 
my door, they have frequently told me to my 
face that they could get more a-begging" — a 
sentence which might have been written to-day, 
with the substitution of a higher wage. His 
explanation rings only too true. " Where an 
Englishman earns his 20s. a week and but just 
lives, as we call it, a Dutchman grows rich and 
leaves his children in very good condition. We 
are the most lazy, indigent nation in the world. 
There is nothing more frequent than for an English- 
man to work till he has got his pockets full of 
money and then go and be idle, or perhaps drunk, 
till it is all gone and perhaps himself in debt, 
and . . . he'll tell you honestly he will drink as 
long as it lasts and then go and work for more." 
Above a thousand families, he further asserts, 
known to himself, go systematically in rags, their 
children wanting for bread, whose fathers can 
earn 15s. to 20s. a week, but will not work. The 
first workhouses in England were practically 
houses of correction, founded for the purpose of 
employing the unemployed ; but in this capacity 
they signally failed, and we are still searching 



SPECULATION AND GAMBLING 277 

for a solution of this vexed problem to-day. To 
get money without working for it was the fashion. 
The passion for gambling reached its climax in 
this age. A desire to build up a rapid fortune 
and contempt for the slower results of patient 
industry seized all classes of society. Company 
after company was formed, " scheme after scheme 
of the most fantastic description rose and glittered 
and burst." There was a company " for making 
salt water fresh," another for " importing jackasses 
from Spain." One projector invited subscriptions 
of two guineas for an undertaking which should 
in time be revealed : in one day he received two 
hundred guineas, with which he decamped ! Born 
of this gambling spirit was the famous South Sea 
Bubble, the bursting of which reduced thousands 
of families to absolute beggary. 

The women of this period were notorious for 
gambling. Whole estates, jewels and valuable 
possessions were staked, lost, and won, night after 
night, through the Georgian period. We hear of 
certain ladies sitting down daily to the card-table, 
where the lowest stake was two hundred guineas. 
It was not regarded as a vice ; it was a resource for 
getting money without working for it. The game 
of whist, hitherto chiefly played by the clergy, was 



278 DUELLING 

coming into fashion, and was played by quite 
young boys and girls, who received lessons in 
whist at a guinea each from masters in the art. 

The universal habit of gambling led to duels. 
By an unwritten code of the times, men held that 
all shortcomings should be atoned for at the point 
of the sword or the mouth of the pistol. Thus 
brawls and squabbles of the coffee-house, disputed 
love-affairs, political strife or irritation produced 
by gaming or racing losses — all were settled by 
this " reigning curse," as it has been called. Duels 
took place in the open street, in the ballroom, 
the pit of the theatre, on Wimbledon Common, 
the Ring at Hyde Park, or the empty room of a 
coffee-house. If a man was not actually killed 
he bore the scars of his wounds till he died, 
testifying to the fact that he was a man of 
honour. 

These wounds were very indifferently treated 
by the surgeons and physicians of the day, for 
medical knowledge was still at a low ebb in 
the early eighteenth century and quackery was 
yet rampant. 

" I tell you," says a contemporary, " 'tis an easie 
thing for a Man of Parts to be a Surgeon ; do 
but buy a Lancet, Forceps, Saw ; talk a little of 



MEDICAL RECEIPTS 279 

Contusions, Fractures, Compress and Bandage ; 
you'll presently by most people be thought an 
excellent Surgeon." 

In such an age of blind superstition and 
ignorance, it was not uncommon for a sharp- 
witted cobbler or bricklayer to pick up a collection 
of old recipes, where he learnt that Venice soap 
would cure cancer, the juice of wild cucumber 
would help dropsy, or snails beaten up and laid 
to the feet would soothe the ague, to hang out 
a sign describing himself as a physician, and to 
practise his art with more or less success. The 
local newspapers of the time are full of quack 
advertisements whereby women as well as men 
often made large fortunes. It is hardly credible 
to think that a sum of ;^5,ooo was voted by the 
Treasury to a woman for the secret of her three 
remedies for disease. They consisted of a powder, 
a decoction, and a pill. The powder was made 
of calcined egg-shells and snails ; the decoction 
was made by boiling herbs, soap and swine's 
cresse burnt to blackness and honey in water ; 
the pills, of calcined snails, wild carrot seeds, hips 
and haws, ashen keys, &c., burnt to blackness and 
mixed with soap and honey. 

Nevertheless it is interesting to note that it was 



280 INOCULATION FOR SMALL-POX 

reserved for a woman to introduce into England 
the system of inoculation for small-pox. This 
disease was still rampant, some 3,000 persons 
dying of it in London alone in the year 1719. 
Inoculation, which consisted in procuring a slight 
attack of small-pox by means of incision, was 
practised at Constantinople, where Lady Mary 
Wortley Montague had her five-year-old boy 
inoculated in 17 17. The child at once had a 
slight attack of small-pox, from which he easily 
recovered. The King's daughter-in-law took 
up the subject ; experiments were made on 
condemned criminals and charity children, and. 
the results being satisfactory, the two little 
Princesses of nine and eleven, granddaughters of 
George I., were inoculated with marked success. 
But the idea grew slowly, and it was not till 
1740 that inoculation came into general use. 

Thus, while under George I. great ideas were 
slowly developing among the more enlightened 
and educated members of the English community, 
the common people persisted in their old-world 
remedies. They tried to cure asthma by drink- 
ing a wine-glass of wine in which wood lice 
were steeped, cramp by wearing garters made of 
rosemary leaves sewn up in fine linen, loss of 



OLD REMEDIES 281 

memory by rubbing the temples with castor oil 
and swallowing small pieces of a swallow's 
heart every morning for a month, sore eyes by 
blowing powdered hen's dung into the affected 
part at bed-time, till one wonders whether 
these odious and inadequate remedies did not 
kill more of our poor ancestors than they cured. 



CHAPTER XXI 
Circa 1727 — 1742 

COUNTRY LIFE 

" I fancy it was a merrier England, that of our ancestors, 
than the island which we inhabit." — Thackeray. 



T 



HE death of George I. in 1727 and the 
accession of his son as George H., made 
little difference in the social life of England. 
The new King could speak English indifferently 
and with a strong accent, and was only a 
foreigner in his tastes and prejudices. Hence he 
exercised no influence in the Cabinet Councils, 
which, like his father, he did not even trouble 
to attend. And, indeed, so independent of the 
King did the Government grow that, since the 
reign of Queen Anne, no English ruler has been 
present at a Cabinet Council or refused assent 
to any Act of Parliament passed by the repre- 
sentatives of the English people. It was the first 



284 COUNTRY ROADS 

step in a movement that was to produce far- 
reaching changes in the lives of the people. 
Henceforth the country was to be governed by 
her Ministers rather than by her King, and the 
coarse-mannered Walpole was a more influential 
person than the poor bad-tempered George II. 

In the years of peace and prosperity that 
succeeded, the English life which is ours to-day 
developed apace. It is hardly necessary to say 
that it developed more slowly in the country 
than in London, for many parts of England 
were completely isolated in the middle of the 
eighteenth century. Miles of impassable road, 
deeply rutted or absolutely rotten, or some 
swollen river overflowing marshy country pre- 
vented much intercourse with the outer world, 
and rendered the appearance of a stranger an 
event giving rise to much curiosity and conversa- 
tion. Quaint indeed to modern ears sound the 
words of John Wesley, travelling from Manchester 
to Huddersfield, two of our busiest centres to- 
day : " The people ran and shouted after the 
carriage, and I believe they are the wildest folk 
in England." Or, again, listen to a famous 
Birmingham bookseller visiting a village in 
Leicestershire, where the villagers set dogs on the 



NEWSPAPEES 285 

strangers : " Surrounded with impassable roads," 
he says, " no intercourse with man to humanise 
the mind, nor commerce to smooth their rugged 
manners, they continue to be boors of nature." 
Assaults were not infrequent, and we hear of 
noses and ears being actually bitten off in a 
barbarous rage that might well belong to an 
earlier age. True, the wandering pedlar who 
travelled from village to village would sometimes 
bring a stained and tattered newspaper, which 
was read and re-read to a gaping and ignorant 
set of country folk. But, if spicy and interesting, 
it contained nothing edifying or relating to the 
great affairs of state. It told how " a boy was 
killed by falling upon iron spikes from a lamp- 
post, which he had climbed to see Mother 
Needham stand in the pillory " ; how a " poor 
man was found hanging in a gentleman's stables 
at Bungay in Suffolk by a person who cut him 
down, and running for assistance, left his penknife 
behind him " ; how the best loaf sugar sold for gd. a 
pound. Pekoe tea for i8s., and in what way the 
Queen was dressed on her forty-ninth birthday. 
Life was trivial and Interests limited, centering for 
the most part around the monotonous doings of 
the country squire. Even if the saying that the 



286 THE COUNTRY SQUIRE 

squire was a mere vegetable "which grew up 
and rotted on the same spot of ground " was 
somewhat exaggerated, yet it is true that the 
"career of one was the career of a hundred.' 
Their lives were spent in scampering after foxes, 
leaping five-barred gates, trampling on the farmer's 
corn, and drinking incredible quantities of ale. 

A familiar figure in the eighteenth century was 
the country squire : familiar the long wig, long 
coat, silver buttons, breeches and top-boots, the 
bluff, red face, the couple of greyhounds and the 
pointer at heel. When not hunting the fox, the 
popular sport of the day — for hawking had quite 
gone out of fashion — he settled the disputes of the 
parish or repaired to the nearest alehouse to get 
drunk in as short a space of time as possible. 
Usually he only drank ale, but on festive occasions 
a bowl of strong brandy punch, with toast and 
nutmeg, added to his already boisterous spirits. 
On Sundays he donned his best suit, which often 
descended from father to son through several 
generations, and with his wife and family repaired 
to the parish church, and entered the family pew, 
where he slumbered during a great part of the 
somewhat dismal service. He seldom went 
further than his own country town, for a journey 



FLYING COACHES 287 

to London was still full of danger and discomfort, 
nor were these fears purely imaginary. A 
journey from the North of England to the capital 
was so hazardous that men shook their heads 
and made their wills before starting. Stage 
coaches already ran between London and many 
of the large towns, as York, Exeter, Chester, 
and Bristol. But it was not till the year 1774 
that a coach began to run from Manchester 
and Liverpool to London three times a week, 
and though nominally three days were occu- 
pied on the journey, bad weather sometimes de- 
layed it for ten days or a fortnight. As for the 
" flying coaches," they were very expensive, and 
regarded as so dangerous that only "neck-or- 
nothing mortals " travelled by them. Neither 
were the dangers of the way much lessened as 
London was approached. In 1727 George II. and 
his wife, trying to reach Kew from St. James's 
Palace, passed a whole night on the road, and 
once between Hammersmith and Fulham the 
coach upset altogether and they were thrown 
out. The road between Kensington and Picca- 
dilly was acknowledged to be " an impassable gulf 
of mud." 

Here is Mrs. Delany's account of a break-down 



288 HIGHWAY ROBBERY 

near London : " At the end of the town (London) 
some part of the coach broke, and we were 
obliged to get out, and took shelter at an alehouse ; 
in half an hour we jogged on, and about an hour 
after that, flop we went into a slough, not over- 
turned, but stuck. Well, out we were hauled 
again, and the coach with much difficulty was 
heaved out ! We then once more set forward, 
and came to our journey's end about five o' 
the clock without any other accident or fright, 
and met with no waters worth getting out of 
the coach for." 

Defoe speaks of a lady near Lewes whose 
coach had to be dragged to church by six oxen, 
the road being too stiff for horses to attempt. 

Throughout the eighteenth century the im- 
provement in travelling advanced steadily if 
slowly. When George II. ascended the throne, 
highway robbery had reached its height, but with 
the hanging of the famous Dick Turpin in 1739 
it began to decline. The passing of the Turn- 
pike Act, making them compulsory all over the 
country, was one of the most important measures 
of the century. It was quickly succeeded by four 
hundred Acts passed for repairing the highways in 
different parts of England. But even the " family 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING 289 

coach " belonging to the country squire remained 
long months together in the stable-yard, and the 
family contented themselves in the garden and 
park. In every part of the country a great love 
of gardening was growing up, and landscape 
gardening was taking the place of the formal sym- 
metrical garden. Hedges were no longer dipt 
in fantastic shape and form, trees were no longer 
grown in pyramids or cones, flower-beds no longer 
laid out in geometrical form. Symmetry of design 
gave way to a wild, luxuriant, irregular, and natural 
beauty, untamed by the hand of man. New plants 
were imported, fresh evergreens were grown, 
exotics increased, books on gardening poured 
forth, and the interest in botany and gardening 
grew apace. 

Less progress was evident inside the squire's 
old house. Oak furniture was passing out of 
fashion. Indeed, the finest old oaks in England 
had been cut down for the navy in the days when 
"hearts of oak were our ships." Mahogany was 
the rage at this time. George II. had ordered 
the staircases at his country houses to be con- 
structed of mahogany, and it soon became the 
fashion to sit on chairs and dine off tables of 
mahogany. But these were innovations which 
20 



290 COUNTEY HOMES 

took long to penetrate to the country homes of 
our forefathers. The interior of their houses was 
plain. Often enough the country gentleman had 
no carpet on his floor or curtains to his windows. 
He had no piano, but there might be found a 
harp, spinet, or virginal in the home of the smaller 
squire. Failing all else, there was always the old 
eight-day clock. There were few easy-chairs, no 
writing-tables or bureaus, such features of our 
modern living rooms, for letters were rare. 
They were written with quill pens and pale 
ink, and in the absence of envelopes were folded 
and sealed with a huge piece of sealing-wax. 
Two brass candlesticks, with a pair of snuffers 
and tinder and flint for striking a light, stood ever 
on the mantelpiece, in the absence of matches. 
The kitchen was moderate in size, there was no 
kitchen range, and the cooking utensils were 
still clumsy. Spits for roasting were turned by 
lads known as Jacks, or even dogs trained for 
the purpose. The lady of the house always 
carved the joints for her family and guests. 
Indeed, it was part of a woman's education at 
this time to take lessons in carving, so that she 
might perform her duty properly. The old love 
of hospitality still existed, and guests were 



DINNEE-TABLE 291 

repeatedly pressed to eat of certain dishes. The 
food was simple, if lavish. The first course would 
consist of a "good big dish of meat," weighing 
some fifteen pounds, either boiled or salt beef, 
roast beef, boiled mutton, with vegetables always 
served under the joint, followed by a pudding 
"made of rice, flour, and breadcrumbs." 

"An Englishman's table is remarkably clean," 
says a Frenchman of this period. " The linen is 
very white, the plate shines brightly, and knives 
and forks are changed surprisingly often, that is 
to say, every time a plate is removed. When 
every one has done eating," he continues, "the 
table is cleared, the cloth even being removed, 
and a bottle of wine, with a glass for each guest, 
is placed upon the table. The King's health is 
first drunk, then that of the Prince of Wales, and 
finally that of all the Royal Family. After these 
toasts the women rise and leave the room, the 
men paying them no attention or asking them to 
stay ; the men remain together for a longer or 
lesser time. This custom surprises foreigners, 
especially Frenchmen, who are infinitely more 
polite with regard to women than are Eng- 
lishmen ; but it is the custom, and one must 
submit." 



292 DANOING 

The ladies having retired, decanters of port 
and madeira were put upon the table, and the 
guests helped themselves for the most part 
liberally. " It was the custom of Squire Western 
every afternoon, as soon as he was drunk, to hear 
his daughter play upon the harpsichord ... he 
never wished any music but what was light and 
airy ; indeed, his favourite tunes were * Old Sir 
Simon the King,' ' St. George he was for England,' 
' Bobbing Joan,' and others." " Bobbing Joan " 
was a country dance, and other familiar and 
favourite tunes of the day were " The Whirligig," 
" The Grasshopper," " The Dumps," " Sweet Kate 
and Blouzy Bella." A dinner party in the 
country usually ended with dancing. The horn- 
pipe, cotillon, reel, country dances, and stately 
minuet were performed by a mixed assembly to 
the " scraping of a fiddle or the tinkling of the 
harpsichord," and in this connection it is interest- 
ing to note that there was no frequent change of 
partner, as there is to-day, but a lady was obliged 
to dance the whole evening through with the 
same man. Each lady placed her fan on the 
table, and danced with the partner who selected 
her fan from the many. 

It was distinctly a merrier England than is the 



SOCIETY 293 

England of to-day. Dancing, drinking, card- 
playing, dining, hunting, took up a large share 
of men's thoughts. " Every town had its fair, 
every village its wake." But morals were low, 
and conversation was coarse. " You could no 
more suffer in a British drawing-room a fine 
gentleman or a fine lady of Queen Anne's time, 
or hear what they heard and said, than you 
would receive an ancient Briton," says Thackeray, 
in words which apply equally to the early Hano- 
verian period. 

Indeed, there was little to refine and elevate at 
this time. Religion was at a low ebb, reading at 
a discount, learning not compulsory. One is 
almost surprised to see that such new books 
as "Gulliver's Travels" and "Robinson Crusoe" 
could be bought for sixpence, "tastefully bound 
in flowered and gilt Dutch paper." Magazines, 
too, were increasing. The Gentleman! s Magazine 
made its appearance in 173 1, and was followed 
by the London Magazine, till in 1750 there 
were eight periodicals in circulation. But these 
were for the educated few. There was no 
national education as yet, and servants in town 
and country were peculiarly ignorant. They were 
taken for the most part from the farmer class, 



294 SERVANTS' WAGES 

and paid at the rate of £4 to £y a year. It 
seems little enough to us to-day, but Defoe 
complains bitterly of the difficulty of getting 
female servants and of the high wages they 
expect. In past years content with 30s. a year, 
they now demanded £6, and he suggests a fixed 
wage to counteract the tendency to rise to an 
impossible ^20! It is interesting to note that 
the commission system, so much deplored to-day, 
was in full swing at this time. Cooks received 
from tradesmen a percentage on everything sup- 
plied to the house, thereby nearly doubling their 
wages. Here is a page from an old eighteenth- 
century account-book kept by a country squire. 
Wages for the whole year were paid on Lady 
Day:— "Sarah" receives £4 19s.; "Old Becky," 
£^ ; " Anne," £2 ; " Nanny," 5 guineas ; " Cook," 
7 guineas ; Gardener, £2 ys. ; " Bray the wag- 
goner," £9 ; " Betty," £6. 

Complaints as to the worry and inefficiency of 
servants are by no means confined to the present 
day, though through the ages faithful and devoted 
service is ever on record. " I think it is the duty," 
says a current number of the eighteenth-century 
Times^ " of every good master and mistress to stop 
as much as possible the present ridiculous and 



OAEELESS SERVANTS 295 

extravagant mode of dress in their domestics. 
Formerly a plaited cap and a white handker- 
chief served a young woman three or four 
Sundays ; now a mistress is required to give up 
the latter end of the week for her maids to pre- 
pare their caps, tuckers, and gowns for Sunday. 
. . . I look upon their exorbitant increase of 
wages as chiefly conducive to their impertinence. 
. . . And what is this increase of wages for? 
Not in order to lay by a little in case of sickness, 
but to squander in dress." 

The same note is struck in Swift's ironical 
"Rules and Directions for Servants." Their 
laziness, their insolence, their careless and dirty 
ways, their lying, their immorality — all come in 
for the Dean's fiercest irony. 

" If a lump of soot falls into the soup," he says 
to the cook, " and you cannot conveniently get it 
out, stir it well, and it will give the soup a high 
French taste." 

To the footman : " In winter time, light the 
dining-room fire but two minutes before the 
dinner is served up, that your master may see 
how saving you are of his coals." 

To the coachman : " When you are in no 
humour to drive, tell your master that the horses 



296 DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES 

have got a cold, that they want shoeing, that the 
rain does them hurt and rots the harness." 

Addressing them generally, he suggests to 
them : " Quarrel with each other as much as you 
please, only always bear in mind that you have 
a common enemy, which is your master and 
lady." 

" Never come till you have been called three or 
four times, for none but dogs will come at the 
first whistle." 

" There are several ways of putting out a candle, 
and you ought to be instructed in them all : you 
may run the candle end against the wainscot, 
which puts the snuff out immediately ; you may 
lay it on the ground and tread the snuff out with 
your foot ; you may hold it upside down until it 
is choked in its own grease, or cram it into the 
socket of the candlestick ; you may whirl it round 
in your hand till it goes out." 

Such suggestions as these only emphasise the 
fact that the domestic difficulties of to-day were 
the domestic difficulties of our forefathers in the 
eighteenth century. 



CHAPTER XXII 

Circa 1742— 1785 

THE NEW PHILANTHROPY 

"Taught by time, our hearts have learned to glow 
For others' good and melt for others' woe." 

Pope. 

UNDER the early Hanoverians, religion in 
this country was in a very languid con- 
dition. The Church after the Revolution had 
slowly lessened its hold on the people ; the force 
of Puritanism was almost spent. A professed 
contempt for religion was a distinguishing feature 
of the age. Christianity was ridiculed, reverence 
for tradition scorned ; and the manners and 
the morals of the eighteenth century steadily 
deteriorated. Bishops and clergy alike neglected 
their duties. " Every one laughs if one talks of 
religion," said a foreigner visiting England. Yet 
still only persons professing the Anglican religion 

297 



298 WAVE OF UNBELIEF 

were eligible for civil and military posts. True, 
Sunday continued to be kept as it had been 
from the days of the Commonwealth, cards, opera, 
bands of music, and games being forbidden. A 
wave of unbelief was sweeping through the land ; 
drunkenness, immorality, and coarse conversation 
were fashionable in all ranks of society. Fidelity 
to marriage vows was " sneered out of fashion." 
" We saw but one Bible in the parish of Cheddar," 
said Hannah More long years after this, " and 
that was used to prop a flowerpot." But perhaps 
Butler, introducing his famous "Analogy," goes 
the furthest of all. " It is come," he says sadly, 
" I know not how, to be taken for granted by 
many persons, that Christianity is not so much 
as a subject for inquiry, but that it is now at 
length discovered to be fictitious." Be this as it 
may, it is pleasant to realise that there were still 
some of the country clergy who remained true to 
their trusts. 

Was there ever a more attractive figure than 
the Vicar of Wakefield, the clergyman farmer? 
Familiar enough is his humble home at the foot 
of a sloping hill in the midst of his twenty acres 
of land, his one-storied house covered with thatch, 
the newly whitewashed walls adorned with piq- 



THE YICAR OF WAKEFIELD 299 

tures of family design, kitchen and parlour 
scrupulously clean, " dishes, plates, and coppers 
well scoured and all disposed in bright rows on 
the shelves." We see the family rising with the 
sun, the Vicar and his boys going forth to labour 
in the fields, while his wife and daughters pre- 
pare the breakfast at home. All worked alike 
till sunset, when one of the younger children read 
aloud the Lessons of the day, he who read best 
being awarded a halfpenny for the poor-box on 
Sunday. And yet the spirit of immorality that 
was abroad must needs disturb this happy home. 

Different indeed were the life and duties of 
the eighteenth-century clergyman to those of our 
clergy to-day. 

" Of Church preferment he had none ; 
Nay, all his hopes of that was gone; 
He felt that he content must be 
With drudging in a curacy. 
Indeed on ev'ry Sabbath day 
Through eight long miles he took his way 
To preach, to grumble, and to pray, 
To cheer the good, to warn the sinner, 
And, if he got it — eat a dinner. 
And all his gains, it did appear, 
Were only thirty pound a year." 

Outwardly there was no mistaking the parson. 



300 JOHN WESLEY 

Invariably he walked abroad in a cassock reaching 
to his knees, surmounted by a long coat, while his 
wig, his bands, his knee-breeches, buckled shoes, 
and cocked hat formed the rest of the clerical 
dress. Indeed, the bishop's apron is the remains 
of the cassock and the archdeacon's hat the 
survival of the cocked hat. 

Yet England was at heart religious, and it 
required but a spark to awaken her dead ashes 
into life. That spark was now lit by John 
Wesley, whose life and teaching were the means 
of creating a new form of religion, which " carried 
to the hearts of the people a fresh spirit of moral 
zeal." 

This is not the place for an account of Wesley's 
work. It is well known how he and a few friends 
led strictly religious lives in the midst of the 
demoralised many ; how they rose at four each 
morning, abstained from drinking and gambling, 
and methodically planned out every hour of the 
day for some beneficial use, till they were mock- 
ingly named " Methodists " ; how Wesley became 
a clergyman and worked zealously for the Church 
in the recently formed colony of Georgia, under 
the auspices of the newly instituted S.P.G. But 
though at first a devoted Churchman, Wesley 



METHODISTS 301 

soon sought to establish a definite Christian 
society within the limits of the Church. Like 
the Puritan attempt before, this was doomed to 
failure, and a separate Christian society came into 
being under the name of Methodist. As the 
clergy refused their pulpits to such as these, the 
new preachers went forth into the fields and 
meadows of England. They made their voices 
heard " in the wildest and most barbarous corners 
of the land, among the bleak moors of Northum- 
berland, or in the dens of London, or in the long 
galleries where in the pauses of his labour the 
Cornish miner listens to the sobbing of the sea." 
By their intense earnestness, their keen en- 
thusiasm, their deep convictions, they stirred vast 
multitudes of their fellow-countrymen. If the 
rich and wealthy sneered at them, they found 
the poor country folk ready to listen and to 
learn. The newly aroused enthusiasm took un- 
desirable forms : " Women fell down in convul- 
sions, strong men were smitten suddenly to the 
earth ; the preacher was interrupted by bursts of 
hysteric laughter or of hysteric sobbing. All the 
phenomena of strong spiritual excitement, so 
familiar in our "Revivals," but strange and unknown 
then, followed on their sermons ; and the terrible 



302 A NEW PHILANTHROPY 

sense of a conviction of sin, a new dread of hell, 
a new hope of heaven, took forms at once gro- 
tesque and sublime." But the masses were 
leavened. At the death of Wesley there were 
some eighty thousand Methodists ; a hundred 
years later there were some twenty-five million. 
This revival not only roused the lethargy of the 
Church of England, but a "new moral en- 
thusiasm " broke over the whole country, and 
henceforth a steady attempt was made to relieve 
human suffering, to educate the ignorant, to place 
a higher ideal before those of our ancestors who 
were depraved by the surrounding vice. Hospitals 
grew and thrived, Sunday-schools sprang into life, 
charities were endowed, the slave trade was put 
down, prisons reformed, and more mercy, pity, and 
human sympathy were bestowed on those who 
so sorely needed it. Perhaps the new movement 
may best be summed up in the familiar words : 
" Not only with our lips, but in our lives." 

The lives of the agricultural labourers of this 
time called loudly for reform. At the accession 
of George IH., England's wealth was derived 
mainly from agriculture, and her peaceful valleys 
were as yet undisturbed by the numerous factories 
that characterise the whole country to-day. The 



SPORTS 303 

lot of the eighteenth-century peasant must have 
been even more monotonous than that of the 
country squire or the vicar of many parishes. 
He was totally uneducated, unable to read or 
write ; his amusements were few, for the sports 
that had brightened the rural life of the six- 
teenth and seventeenth centuries had been swept 
away by the Puritans, and the sports of to- 
day were still in their infancy. Cricket indeed 
was coming in, but as yet the cricket bat was not 
invented, and the game seems to have been 
popular with country girls as well as boys. In 
1775 a cricket match was played between six 
unmarried men and the same number of un- 
married women, and though one woman made 
seventeen runs, or " notches," as they were then 
called, the men won the game. Sometimes a 
match was played by girls only, eleven on either 
side, " dressed all in white," and the Derby Mer- 
cury records the fact that "the girls bowled, 
batted, ran, and caught as well as any men could 
do." Wrestling was popular among the natives, 
as were also cock-fighting and bull-baiting. 

Then, as now, the village alehouse was the 
popular resort. Here they heard any news that 
might be stirring : a stray paper would unfold to 



304 AGEICULTURAL REVOLUTION 

them the current news from India ; here they 
would learn the progress of America's successful 
struggle for independence ; here they could discuss 
the small doings of their neighbours and learn 
what passengers had gone by in the weekly coach. 
They smoked smuggled tobacco and drank 
smuggled tea, both of which commodities were 
expensive and heavily taxed. Their staple food 
was rye bread and " stony cheese, too hard to 
bite," or coarse bread soaked in skim milk. All 
was as yet in a state of rural simplicity — 

"Between her swagging paniers' load 
A farmer's wife to market rode." 

These country folk still dressed in English 
woollen materials, woven on the spot. Articles 
of clothing often descended from father to son, 
and it was not uncommon to find on the heads 
of country folk hats that had been fashionable 
in the days of Charles II. 

But changes in the agricultural world were at 
hand. The introduction of the field turnip and 
an improvement in stock breeding brought about 
a complete revolution in the farming province. 
Waste lands were henceforth reclaimed and 
brought under cultivation, low-lying meadows 



INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 305 

were drained for pasturage, and general activity- 
brought an increase of wealth and prosperity to 
those engaged in agriculture. But great as was 
this progress, it was slight in comparison with 
the enormous industrial revolution, which, in 
the latter half of the century, raised England 
to a condition of wealth and power hitherto 
undreamt of. 

The Indian calicoes, muslins, and chintzes have 
already been alluded to. They became more and 
more popular in England, and legislation failed 
to arrest their importation into the country. 
Cotton was shipped in ever increasing quantities 
from the West Indies to Manchester, then known 
as " the largest, most rich, populous, and busy 
village in England." Here some two thousand 
families quietly pursued their home industries of 
making fustians, tickings, and tapes from cotton 
yarn mixed with their native wool. All through 
the ages the spinning of thread had been done by 
young women, known as the spinsters of the 
family. In the middle of the eighteenth century 
these spinsters still sat with their distaffs round 
the weaver's hand-loom, spinning each single 
thread by hand, a slow and laborious method. 
But invention was in the air. A new flying 

21 



306 SPINNING JENNY 

shuttle was followed by the spinning jenny, which 
worked several spindles at once. This innovation 
threw many out of work and was stoutly opposed 
by the uneducated workers, unable to look ahead. 
But no opposition can stay new inventions. 

A new spinning machine, worked by water- 
power, was attacked by the old hand-workers, 
and the first water-mill in England was burned 
to the ground. But such things must be, and 
before long the water-wheel was an accepted 
thing and cotton workers were collected together 
in a factory on the banks of some little stream, 
the home industry slowly languished, and the 
old spinning-wheel became a thing of the past. 
These labour-saving inventions created an in- 
creasing demand for cotton goods, as the follow- 
ing figures distinctly indicate. In 1775 the 
importation of cotton into England was over four 
million pounds ; ten years later it was over eleven 
millions, and in 1789 it had risen to over thirty- 
two millions, while as yet the American importa- 
tion had hardly begun. 

The carriage of these ever-increasing goods by 
means of rumbling wagons and pack-horses 
stumbling along the rotten and lonely roads was 
already totally inadequate, when the idea of 



CANALS 307 

cutting canals supplied the requisite means of 
communication. The gain to industry was both 
immense and immediate. With three thousand 
miles of navigable canals all over England, and 
a race of navigators, or navvies, to manipulate 
the shallow boats which carried the merchandise 
from place to place, the problem of communication 
was for the moment solved. 

But if these canals were useful for the transport 
of cotton goods, yet more invaluable were they to 
the owners of coal and iron mines, for whom, 
indeed, they were originally designed. A new 
importance was now gathering round the coal 
mines of the North. Through the long centuries 
that had passed, the vast stores of iron beneath 
the tread of man had lain unworked, owing to the 
prevalent idea that it could only be smelted by 
means of wood, and this was growing scarce with 
the advance of agriculture. An invention for 
smelting iron by means of coal revolutionised the 
whole trade and at once raised that material to 
take its high place in the modern working world. 
" It is," says a recent historian — " it is its pro- 
duction of iron which more than all else has 
placed England at the head of industrial Europe. 
The value of coal as a means of producing 



308 STEAM ENGINE 

mechanical force was revealed in the discovery 
by which Watt transformed the steam engine 
from a mere toy into the most wonderful in- 
strument which human industry has ever had at 
its command." Here was a new labour-saving 
machine, the crowning invention of an age which 
as yet had surpassed all others in ingenuity and 
that indomitable perseverance in the teeth of 
opposition which has ever been such a charac- 
teristic of our people. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

Circa 1785— 1802 

THE "quality" 

" Opinions, like fashions, descend from those of quality 
down to the vulgar, where they are dropped and 
vanish." — Swift. 

THE growing wealth of the commercial classes 
affected all ranks of society, and none more 
than the proud old aristocracy of England, the 
"quality" as they were called in the eighteenth 
century. Although George III. had decreed that 
" no individual engaged in trade, however ample 
might be his nominal fortune," should be created 
a British peer; although they were the natural 
heads of landed interest in England, the " centre 
of a traditional popular reverence unmistakable 
in its . . . sincerity," the acknowledged leaders of 
public life, inasmuch as they entirely constituted 
the House of Lords, and by their borough 



310 DRESS 

patronage materially influenced the House of 
Commons — for all this, the position and power of 
the nobility and gentry were almost unconsciously 
diminishing year by year. And this change was 
to grow more marked with the inevitable rise of 
the democracy in the nineteenth century. But the 
" quality," as heretofore, still led the manners and 
fashions of the people, and it is to them we must 
still look for the momentous changes of the 
eighteenth century. The century divides itself 
into two parts : the first half coarse, godless, 
merry and careless ; the latter part growing in 
refinement, delicacy, simplicity, and soberness. 
Amid the numerous varieties in women's dress, 
the most marked characteristics were the hoop 
and the powdered head-dress. The famous hoop 
petticoats had been increasing steadily in size 
and clumsiness since the reign of Queen Anne. 
Extravagance throughout the reign of George II. 
afforded ample scope to the satirist of the period ; 
their inconvenience and want of grace have been 
made well known to us by contemporary writings. 
We see the poor ladies, martyrs to this deplorable 
craze, sidling up and down stairs, edging them- 
selves through narrow doors, occupying the whole 
of the narrow pavements, thereby compelling men 



HEAD-DRESS 311 

to walk in the roads, blocking church pews, 
filling aisles, ill at ease in shops and places of 
amusement — grotesque figures and conspicuous in 
their gaudy colours. For these hoop petticoats 
were made of the richest damask velvets, elabor- 
ately embroidered with gold and silver. Mrs. 
Delany tells us of a white brocaded lustring at 
13s. a yard, "with great ramping flowers in 
shades of purples, reds, and greens," adding with 
quite unnecessary candour : " It will make a 
great show." A yet more startling petticoat was 
of black velvet embroidered with chenille, the 
" pattern being a large stone vase filled with 
ramping flowers that spread over the whole," and 
as if this was not enough, between the vases of 
flowers was a device of gold shells and foliage 
embossed and " most heavily rich." 

At the accession of George III., and before the 
dawn of moderation, the head-dress of women 
reached a climax of absurdity. Enormous struc- 
tures were worn stuffed with horse-hair puffs and 
powdered with a preparation of pomatum and 
meal ; they were surmounted with ribbons, jewels, 
artificial flowers or plumes of feathers, intro- 
duced by the famous Duchess of Devonshire. 
This raised the whole head-dress to such a 



312 ARTIFICIAL COMPLEXIONS 

grotesque height that we hear of the tops of sedan 
chairs being removed to allow room for these un- 
sightly heads, and ladies had to take refuge on the 
floors of their carriages to enable them to drive 
at all. Neither was it uncommon to find fruits 
mingled in the head-dress — " an acre and a half 
of shrubbery," remarked Hannah More, "beside 
slopes, grass plots, tulip beds, clumps of peonies, 
kitchen gardens and greenhouses." The fashion 
was ended by the appearance of Garrick on the 
stage dressed as a woman of the age, with every 
kind of vegetable on his head and a large carrot 
hanging down on either side. 

Equally artificial was the complexion of the 
day. Rouge and white lip salve, "Dutch Pink," 
" Bavarian Red," wash-balls made of poisonous 
chemicals, scented oils, cosmetics made of borax, 
vinegar, bread, eggs, and the wings of pigeons ; 
false eyebrows and perfumed waters — all helped in 
the vital art of beautifying and rejuvenating the 
" quality " of the eighteenth century. 

But changes were at hand. The flood of 
English-made cotton goods created new fashions. 
Expensive silks, damasks and velvets, which had 
played such a large part in the dress of the upper 
classes, began to disappear, and with them the 



SMUGGLING 313 

hoops ; all woollen goods went out of fashion — and 
here it is interesting to note that, although wool 
was England's main trade, the value of woollen 
underclothing was as yet unrecognised. Cottons, 
muslins, crapes, and calicoes became more and 
more popular, and while these materials were 
changing the quality of dress, "a great wave of 
fashion in France was moving in the direction of 
a republican simplicity." But it took time to 
revolutionise English dress. 

Meanwhile Protection was the keynote of our 
commercial life in this age. To encourage native 
manufactures, George III. actively opposed all im- 
portation of foreign goods by the levy of heavy 
duties. Thus gloves, which had now become an 
important feature of dress, and were imported into 
this country from abroad, were taxed id. and 3d. 
a pair, according to their quality, with the result 
that smuggling went on merrily. It is a well- 
known, if melancholy fact that women were famed 
for their ingenuity in smuggling, velvet and laces 
being specially secreted. " The pattern of velvet 
you sent me is so pretty," writes a lady to her 
friend abroad, " that it determines me to risk 
the vigilance of the Custom House officers." 

Flemish lace was not infrequently smuggled 



314 DISAPPEARANCE OF WIGS 

into the country In coffins, and it is said that 
£6,000 worth of foreign lace was discovered 
hidden in the coffin of a certain man who died 
in Paris, which speaks well for the vigilance 
exercised by the Customs officers on the English 
coast. Lace was as popular with men as with 
women, forming as it did an important part of 
their dress. Thus we find Horace Walpole 
discussing the merits of lace with a friend in 
terms of the deepest interest. " I have chosen 
you a coat of claret colour," he writes, "but I 
have fixed nothing about the lace. Barrett had 
none of gauze but what was as broad as the 
Irish Channel. Your tailor found a very re- 
putable one at another place, but I would not 
determine rashly ; it will be two or three and 
twenty shillings the yard ; you might have a 
very substantial real lace for twenty." It is 
impossible to conceive such a correspondence 
between two men in these days. The wigs, worn 
religiously by men and boys till the middle of the 
century, now began to disappear ; men of fashion 
allowed their hair to grow long, tied it in a pig- 
tail or queue, and dressed it in front with a curl 
on either side of the head. The hair was worn 
powdered till 1795, when Pitt levied a tax of a 



INTRODUCTION OF PIG-TAILS 315 

guinea on every powdered head, expecting to add 
considerably to the revenue from the pockets of 
the rich. But, contrary to his expectations, the 
gay world eluded this ingenious tax by giving up 
the use of powder. 

"Take care," said an Oxford tutor to young 
Landor, who was the first undergraduate to 
discard powder for his hair — "take care, or they 
will stone you for a republican." " But," said the 
poet, looking back across past years, " I stuck to 
my plain hair and queue tied with black ribbon." 

This was but part of the dress revolution. The 
reign of the cocked hat trimmed with gold and 
silver was drawing to its close, and in its stead 
arrived the ancestor of the modern top-hat, only 
at present rounder, higher, and broader in the 
brim. One cannot but regret the change from 
canary-coloured pantaloons, long, grass-green, 
wide-skirted coats, and pink and buff waistcoats, 
reaching nearly to the knees, to the sombre-hued 
garments which were already beginning to replace 
these cheerful tints. The diamond-hilted sword, 
the clouded cane, and the suspended muff com- 
pleted the eighteenth-century costume. These 
muffs had been used by both sexes during the 
Stuart period, but they did not come into general 



316 UMBRELLAS AND MUFFS 

use till this time. They were small, and often 
made of feathers and lace. " I send you a 
smallish muff that you may put in your pocket, 
and it costs but 14s.," writes Horace Walpole to 
a friend. Muffs grew larger as time went on, 
and we find a London citizen going to church 
with a large white muff — the last new thing from 
Paris — suspended from his neck. A little pet 
dog belonging to a lady in the same pew crept 
in, curled up, and went to sleep, while the owner 
was occupied with his prayers. The sequel of 
the story may be easily imagined ! 

But though there was nothing effeminate in 
wearing a muff, it was beneath contempt for a 
man to carry an umbrella. The story of Jonas 
Hanway — the first man who dared to hold up an 
umbrella in London, and to brave the jeers and 
hoots of a London crowd — reads like a fairy-tale 
to-day, but the innovation made way very slowly, 
and thirty years after this, there was only one 
umbrella in Cambridge, and it was kept at a shop 
and let out by the hour ! 

With more rapidity the distinction between the 
dress of the quality and of the commercial classes 
was being obliterated. Sumptuary laws were 
already matters of past history. " If great men 



DECREASE OF DRINKING 317 

will dress like tradesmen, and tradesmen like 
great men, it will be necessary to make a new 
law for fashion," sighed one whose mind could 
not grasp the inevitable change. As in dress, so 
in manners and morals changes were taking place. 
The King had stopped gambling at the Palace, and 
in one short year the four hundred lottery offices 
in London had decreased to fifty-one. Two of 
the highest ladies in the land were summoned for 
playing high stakes, and fined £^Oj after which 
gambling was no longer reputable. 

The hard drinking of the early Hanoverian 
period was likewise diminishing. Dr. Johnson, 
who had systematically drunk three bottles of port 
at a sitting in his young days, and remembered 
the time when all decent people got drunk every 
night without social criticism, ascribed the change 
to the substitution of wine for beer. But there 
was also a growing delicacy of feeling in the 
matter, and a repulsion to the demeanour and 
language of a drunken gentleman. True, they 
still ate enormously. " I see here every day," 
writes Walpole, " men who are mountains of 
roast beef, and only seem just roughly hewn out 
into the outlines of human form." He himself 
was moderate in all things, and usually drank 



318 HORSE-EACING 

iced water. But, like men in all ages, he greatly- 
resented innovation. " Everything is changed," 
he sighs from time to time. " I do not like dining 
at nearly six nor beginning the evening at ten at 
night. If one does not conform, one must live 
alone. ... I am a remnant of the last age. . . . 
I don't care a rush for gold and diamonds, I 
don't understand horse-racing, I never go to 
reviews." Wistfully he yearned, as so many had 
yearned before him, to return to the simplicity of 
ancient times, "when we were the frugal, tem- 
perate, virtuous old English . . . before tea and 
sugar were known." 

But if Walpole could not enter into the amuse- 
ment of horse-racing it was greatly on the increase 
among his friends, and this period saw the inaugu- 
ration of the famous Derby Stakes, which started 
with thirty-six subscribers at £^o each. 

Among the refining influences of the times may- 
be included the revival of Shakspere's dramas by 
Garrick, who purged the English theatre of the 
coarse and scandalous plays that had so delighted 
our forefathers throughout the early Hanoverian 
period. Persons of quality were still accom- 
modated with chairs on the stage, which were 
retained by footmen in gorgeous livery till they 



THE THEATRE 319 

arrived ; there were no stalls, the whole floor being 
given up to the pit, where sat the critics, while 
boxes and galleries contained the general public. 
The play began at five o'clock, seats varying from 
five shillings to one shilling. The occupants of 
some of the boxes attended as much to be seen as 
to see. " I rose and sat down, covered and un- 
covered my head, twenty times between the acts," 
says Roderick Random, " pulled out my watch, 
wound it up, set it, displayed my snuff-box, affected 
to take snuff, wiped my nose with a perfumed 
handkerchief, dangled my cane and adjusted my 
sword-knot, in order to attract attention." 

It was the rising middle-class folk who really 
appreciated the plays on their own merits, and 
delighted in "As You Like It," the "Merry 
Wives," and " A Winter's Tale." Perdita appeared 
in a dress of pink lustring, a long stomacher 
and a hoop festooned with flowers, Othello in 
a regimental suit of the King's bodyguard and 
a flowered wig. Lady Macbeth in a hoop eight 
yards in circumference, and Cleopatra had a 
powdered commode and a jewelled fan. The 
same improvement in taste that revolutionised 
the stage affected the lighter literature of the 
day, and a " wave of delicacy " created a new 



320 AUTHORSHIP FOR WOMEN 

epoch in the reading world of our ancestors. 
The change is practically illustrated by Sir 
Walter Scott's lady who, having enjoyed the 
books of her youth, turned from them in horror 
in her old age to the moral works of Miss 
Edgeworth. The new departure was inaugurated 
by a woman — Miss Burney, with her novel " Eve- 
lina." The opposition that women writers of the 
day had to encounter is illustrated by the fact 
that Miss Burney was almost forced to burn her 
first MS. on the representation of her stepmother 
that authorship for woman was most reprehen- 
sible. But from the ashes sprang the inimitable 
" Evelina," written in stolen moments, in disjointed 
fragments, copied out in a feigned, upright hand- 
writing, smuggled to the publisher by a young 
brother, who was disguised for the occasion, and 
bought outright for the magnificent sum of ;^20. 
Of its success, of the generosity of the publisher, 
and the sudden fame of the young author, it is 
superfluous to speak here. Miss Fanny Burney 
had opened up new possibilities to the novelist 
by the purity of her writing ; she had inaugurated 
the circulating library, such a feature in modern 
life to-day ; she had prepared the ground for 
Miss Edgeworth, Miss Martineau, Miss Jane 



BANNS OF MARKIAGE 321 

Austen, and others, who all easily excelled her 
in literary achievement. It was this sense of 
refinement that prompted Miss Burney's words 
when she heard that henceforth the banns of 
marriage were to be published in church on the 
three Sundays preceding the event : " A public 
wedding. Oh, what a gauntlet for any woman 
of delicacy to run ! " 

Many a clandestine marriage still took place, 
and elopement with an heiress was very common. 
Indeed, fortune played as large a part as heretofore 
in the marriages of the eighteenth century, as may 
be gleaned from the current advertisements of the 
day. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1781 : 
" Married, the Revd. Mr. Roger Waina, of York, 
about twenty-six years of age, to a Lincolnshire 
lady upwards of eighty, with whom he is to have 
;^8,ooo in money, ;^300 per annum, and a coach and 
four during life only." A Liverpool doctor takes 
to wife "an agreeable young lady of eighteen 
years of age, with a very genteel fortune " ; a 
Kendal Colonel is wedded to "an agreeable 
young lady with a fortune of ;^i4,ooo," while 
"an eminent hosier marries Miss Betty Newby, 
a genteel lady with ;^900." But change was 
dawning even in these delicate matters, and a 
22 



322 "BLUE STOCKINGS" 

band of women, mockingly known as "Blue 
Stockings," pioneered a new movement. This 
little circle, which numbered in their midst 
Elizabeth Montague, Elizabeth Carter, Fanny 
Burney, and Hannah More, were the first to 
encourage intelligence in women, and to see that 
it was no hindrance to personal charm or 
matrimony. They gave a more serious turn to 
the frivolous society of their day, and shook the 
time-worn prejudice which had treated study as 
" unbecoming in a woman." 



CHAPTER XXIV 

Circa 1802 — 1820 
DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

" New times demand new measures and new men : 
The world advances and in time outgrows 
The laws that in our fathers' days were best." 

Lowell. 

STARTLING as were the inventions of the 
last period, numerous as were the innova- 
tions, they pale before the breathless progress of 
the age upon which we are entering. Yet in its 
early days there was nothing to distinguish it from 
the eighteenth century, and but slight indication 
of the vastness and rapidity of the coming 
changes. The Hanoverian Kings were to wear 
out their inconsequent lives before the greatness 
of our country developed to its present capacity. 
Hence we have to deal with a condition of 
society, progressing truly, but not with the 



324 SEA-SIDE RESORTS 

breakneck speed of the latter half of the 
century. We have reached the age of our own 
great-grandfathers, and the portraits which hang 
upon our walls have familiarised us with the 
general bearing of the men and women of this 
generation, the cut and colour of their clothes 
before the dawn of photography, when the 
travelling artist made his way from country 
house to country house, painting his model in 
home surroundings. 

As yet there were no trains, although the birth 
of "Puffing Billy" in 1813 had suggested vast 
and appalling possibilities to the faint-hearted 
of the earth. But while a revolution in road- 
making had taken place, thanks to the genius 
and perseverance of Macadam, coaching from 
place to place was still slow and laborious, 
though in this way whole English families 
travelled to the various sea-side resorts, which 
were springing into fashion. Brighton was 
becoming a favourite watering-place, in spite of 
Dr. Johnson's description of the country as "so 
desolate, that if one had a mind to hang oneself 
for desperation at being obliged to live there, it 
would be difficult to find a tree on which to 
fasten a rope." 



WITHOUT CHLOROFORM 325 

Here George, Prince of Wales, first as Regent 
and later as King, played his part, danced and 
gambled and made love, built the famous Pavil- 
ion, and started Brighton on its brilliant career. 
Margate, Ramsgate, Dover, Deal and Weymouth 
all sprang into fame as watering-places at this 
time, and to the latter sea-side resort George HI 
took his Queen and family to regain his fast- 
failing health. Natural springs and sea bathing 
played a large part in the medical curriculum 
of the day. 

Medicine had advanced but little. The old 
family doctor was pompous, but ignorant. He 
carried his gold-headed cane with its round ball 
top, a relic of the time when it contained an 
aromatic mixture to guard against infection. In 
all cases of fever and agues bleeding was freely 
resorted to, and the surgeon of the day had 
few other refuges. Chloroform and ether had 
yet to be discovered ; in those days operations 
were performed roughly, with imperfect and often 
unclean instruments, while the unhappy patient 
lay helplessly bound, conscious of every move- 
ment and enduring excruciating agonies. It is 
horrible to contemplate. 

" I must enlarge the opening. Give me my 



326 VACCINATION COMPULSORY 

uncle's knife," cried the nephew of a famous 
operator of this period. The operation lasted an 
hour, after which leeches were applied to prevent 
fever. After a night of agony, the victim was 
bled in the arm, more leeches were applied, until, 
twenty-nine hours after the first shock, death 
mercifully released the patient. It is small wonder 
that many preferred to suffer long-drawn-out pain 
and disease rather than submit to the torture of 
the knife ! Under surgeon, physician and apothe- 
cary were an army of dentists, midwives, &c., 
all more or less ignorant and uncertificated. 
The new century found vaccination growing in 
popularity among the cultured classes, together 
with a consequent decrease of small-pox, but it 
was not made compulsory till 1840. 

But if disease was imperfectly understood, if 
surgery was handicapped without the help of 
anaesthetics, and infant mortality was high, yet 
the population was increasing by leaps and 
bounds. Indeed, nothing like it had ever been 
known before. The first census, taken in 1801, 
showed Great Britain with over nine million 
inhabitants. Twenty years later it had risen 
to above fourteen million. In the whole preced- 
ing two hundred years it had only risen about 



LARGE FAMILIES 327 

two million. The growth was chiefly in the 
North. Liverpool, Manchester, and Bradford 
sprang into sudden fame, contributing nearly 
75 per cent, of the increase. The cause is not 
far to seek. The newly discovered power of 
steam had increased the manufactures and created 
a tremendous demand for coal. Hence a vast 
population grew up around the northern coal- 
fields, and the most desolate parts of the island 
became alive with struggling humanity. There 
appeared to be work and wages for all, though 
later developments showed how totally inadequate 
those wages were. Boys and girls married early, 
and families were large at this time in all classes 
of society. The Queen herself had given birth 
to nine sons and six daughters, and it was no 
unusual thing to find fifteen and twenty children 
in a family — a rate which soon peopled our 
islands with astonishing rapidity! 

There was little enough organisation ready to 
cope with the masses of children added to the 
population. Both in town and country the 
children of England at this time were the wildest 
morsels of humanity, plunged in ignorance, 
steeped in vice, only half clothed and half fed, 
and, moreover, in many parts of the country, 



328 HAEDSHIPS OF CHILDREN 

worked in mine and factory as little beasts of 
burden, atoms of a great industrial machine. 

" ' For oh/ say the children, * we are weary, 
And we cannot run or leap — 
If we cared for any meadows, it were merely 
To drop down in them and sleep. . . . 
For all day we drag our burden tiring 
Through the coal dark underground — 
Or, all day, we drive the wheels of iron 
In the factories round and round.' " 

Few people thought much about the children 
then. A Bill was introduced in 1802 proposing 
that children should only work twelve hours a 
day, and that they shouW not be allowed to be 
employed between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., 
but both parents and manufacturers were against 
it, the Bill was dropped, and the children struggled 
on, till the great heart of England was melted 
with pity. 

Private enterprise and philanthropy have ever 
forestalled legislation. This was now the case 
with regard to the children. The Sunday-schools 
opened by Raikes in Gloucester at the end of the 
last century were successfully making their way, 
despite the ordinary opposition from all sides. 
They were very different institutions tg the 



SUNDAY-SCHOOLS 329 

Sunday-school of to-day. The teachers, who 
were paid is. 6d. for the Sunday, assembled the 
children at 8 a.m. For two hours they were 
taught the alphabet, spelling and reading, with 
lessons from the New Testament, catechism, and 
Watts's Divine and Moral Songs. The children 
then went home, to reassemble in the afternoon, 
when they were taken to church for public 
catechism, returning to their lessons till 5.30, 
when they were dismissed for another week. 
Attendance was insured by the distribution of 
sweets and gingerbread. 

" It is my wish that every poor child in my 
kingdom should be taught to read the Bible,' 
said the poor King, before he was " put away " in 
the padded room at Windsor, there to drone his 
own dismal hymns in the intervals of madness. 
The wish was more practically echoed by Hannah 
More, who struggled manfully against the pre- 
vailing prejudice with regard to learning. She 
would personally visit cottage after cottage 
among the poor, explaining, arguing, and 
endeavouring to overcome scruples. The only 
benefit to themselves that the short-sighted 
parents could see was that their apples would 
get a chance of ripening in the orchards, for the 



330 EARLY EDUCATION 

children would not be free all day to steal them ! 
At last, after weeks of patient and thankless 
work, she collected her children and bought an 
old ox-shed to serve as school-house. Then 
a teacher had to be found. Few qualifications 
were necessary in these days. A little private 
fortune was desirable, for salaries were low. " A 
woman of excellent natural sense, good know- 
ledge of the human heart, activity, zeal and 
uncommon piety," with a grown-up daughter, was 
one of the selected teachers for these early 
elementary schools. She taught reading, sewing, 
knitting and spinning. " I allow no writing for 
the poor," says Hannah More, " my object is 
not to make fanatics, but to train up the lower 
classes in habits of industry and piety." As in 
the Sunday-schools, regular attendance was re- 
warded with sweets and gingerbread, augmented 
once a year by prizes of Bibles, calico aprons, 
caps and tippets. A marked improvement took 
place in the neighbourhoods where such schools 
as these had been started, and others began to 
rise up all over the country, until the private 
enterprise of a few individuals was merged in 
various societies, which undertook the education 
of the poor, till, in i8i8, 605,704 children out of 



PUNISHMENT BY RIDICULE 331 

two millions were at school. Teachers being 
insufficient and funds low, most of the teaching 
was done by children themselves — a method 
which was the forerunner of the pupil-teacher 
system. Classes were divided into eight " drafts," 
marked by semicircular lines chalked on the 
floor. Each child was supposed to attend for 
two years between the ages of seven and fourteen 
to learn reading from the Bible, writing on a 
ruled slate, and the first four rules of arithmetic. 
This was given free till 1827, when a fee of 2d. 
a week was charged to defray expenses. Punish- 
ment by ridicule was the fashion in these days, 
though the stick was never absent. Thus the 
idle boy was rocked in a cradle by a girl, the 
fidget had his legs tied to logs, the truant was 
fastened to his desk, bad boys were yoked 
together, and sluggards were put into a basket 
and hoisted up to the ceiling by a rope. But 
better days for the children of England were 
dawning. 

A change in dress, moreover, was widely 
welcomed. Throughout the centuries boys and 
girls had been dressed in exact imitation of their 
parents. Boys had worn their hair long or short 
according to the fashions of the day ; they wore 



332 CHILDREN'S DRESS 

tight breeches, cut-away coats and embroidered 
waistcoats, while their little sisters had been 
doomed to long skirts, hoops and stomachers, 
and whatever folly in fashion characterised their 
age. Now, though girls still wore their frocks 
to their feet, yet the newer fashion allowed more 
ease and grace than had formerly been possible ; 
there was childish simplicity in the long folds 
of plain material that fell from neck to feet, only 
broken by a high-waisted sash. Low necks and 
short sleeves were worn from babyhood, while 
frilled trousers, white socks, and sandals com- 
pleted the costume. The boys are familiar, too, 
in their nankeen trousers buttoning up over their 
waistcoats, their frilled shirt-collars, white stock- 
ings and pumps. Nankeen for children was freely 
used. Thus Miss Martineau gives us a glimpse 
of her family starting off on a journey from 
Norwich to Newcastle. " My mother, aunt 
Margaret, sister Elizabeth, aged fifteen, Rachel, 
myself, and little James, aged four, in nankeen 
frocks, were all crammed into a post-chaise for 
a journey of three or four days." 

Caps or turbans, as they were called, were 
worn by all women and girls at this time. 
They were made of silk, velvet, muslin, lace 



DISAPPEARANCE OF PIG-TAILS 333 

crape, and trimmed with feathers, flowers, ribbons 
in all sorts of fantastic shapes, till, after a time, 
the turban was relegated to old-fashioned matrons 
and merged into a simple cap. It was an age 
of capacious bonnets and weeping veils, of 
voluminous muffs, long mittens, prunella slippers, 
embroidered scarfs and boas : it was also the era 
of the Empire gown, long and straight, low- 
necked, short-sleeved, and high-waisted, as worn 
by Napoleon's Empress. 

Perhaps the most important change in men's 
dress was the disappearance of the pig-tail in 
1808. So great was the joy in the army at 
getting rid of this foolish fashion, that, when the 
order came, one regiment, already starting abroad 
on foreign service, gave three cheers and flung 
the pig-tails into Portsmouth harbour while others 
made bonfires of these relics of a barbarous 
custom. But, indeed, there was little time and 
thought to bestow on men's fashions during these 
troubled years that ushered in the new century. 
The momentous struggle against Napoleon 
monopolised men's attention, and the conver- 
sation of our great-grandfathers centred around 
"Old Boney," whom they regarded as the very 
devil. Shop windows were full of caricatures 



334 "BONEY" 

representing " His Satanic Majesty " with tail, 
horns and hoofs complete. Exaggerated stories 
were told in the clubs, and repeated in the 
drawing-rooms, of his adventures, his regal dis- 
play, his hatred of England, and his schemes 
for attacking her. His name was used as a bogey 
to frighten children. In 1807, preparations had 
been made along the Norfolk coast for an 
expected invasion, and the five-year-old Harriet 
Martineau was twitching her pinafore in terror 
at the thought of the monster's arrival. 

" Papa, what will you do if Boney comes ? " 
she asked, trembling. 

" What will I do ? " he answered cheerfully, 
"Why, I will ask him to take a glass of port 
with me." 

The idea that the dreaded " Boney " was human 
enough to be entertained with port comforted the 
nervous child not a little. 

Men and women wept over the death of Nelson 
in 1805, and were equally ready to toast the hero 
of Waterloo, when their old foe was no longer a 
terror in the land. 

Notwithstanding their foreign interests, our 
great-grandfathers still found time to oppose the 
introduction of gas, the new method of lighting 



INTRODUCTION OF GAS 335 

their capital at home. In the year 1805 the 
Morning Post announced that a shop at the 
corner of Piccadilly " is illuminated every even- 
ing with gas. It produces a much more brilliant 
light than either oil or tallow, and proves in a 
striking manner the advantage to be derived 
from so valuable an application." Although at 
this time the smell made people sick and the 
fumes well-nigh asphyxiated them, yet such an 
innovation was bound to make its way. In 18 10 
the Gas Light and Coke Company obtained their 
charter, and gradually the main streets of London 
were lit with gas, and the manservant armed 
with a lantern for conducting home " the quality " 
from ball or theatre became extinct. But till 
Queen Victoria's accession the clergy of some 
of the leading City churches preached against 
the introduction of gas into churches " as profane 
and contrary to God's law." And the aristocratic 
inhabitants of Grosvenor Square absolutely 
declined to be lit with gas till the year 1842 ! 

The gas lamps were still lit by means of the 
original tinder box, friction matches not being 
invented till 1830 ; but the Morning Post in 1808 
foreshadows the idea of producing fire by other 
means. "The success of the Instantaneous Light 



336 LUCIFER MATCHES 

Fire Matches daily increases, and the manufactory 
in Soho has now become the daily resort of 
persons of the first fashion and consequence in 
town, who express themselves highly gratified 
with the utility and ingenuity of these curiosities." 
The first successful phosphorus matches were 
named " Lucifer," from their supposed dealings 
with the Evil One. "Matches that light them- 
selves will find no place in my house," cried 
an indignant woman in 1829. "Give me my 
old-fashioned tinder-box." People were gravely 
warned of their dangers, so that the general 
use of matches was delayed till nearly 1840. 

These are but a few of the great innovations 
that characterised the dawn of the new century : 

" The old times are dead and gone and rotten, 
The old thoughts shall never more be thought; 
The old faiths have failed and are forgotten, 
The old strifes are done, the fight is fought ; 
And with a clang and roll, the new creation 
Bursts forth, 'mid tears and blood and tribulation." 



CHAPTER XXV 

Circa 1820 — 1837 
PROGRESS 



"Progress is 
Xhe law of life — man's self is not yet man, 
Nor shall I deem his object served, his end 
Attained, his genuine strength put fairly forth. 
While only here and there a star dispels 
The darkness, here and there a towering mind 
O'erlooks its prostrate fellows." 

Browning. 



GEORGE III. died in 1820, but he had ceased 
to reign for the past ten years. "All the 
world knows the story of his malady ; history 
presents no sadder figure than that of the old 
man, blind and deprived of reason, wandering 
through the rooms of his Palace, addressing 
imaginary Parliaments, reviewing fancied troops, 
holding ghostly Courts." Sightless, deaf, imbe- 
cile, yet still dignified with a long snowy beard, 
23 337 



338 ACCESSION OF GEORGE IV. 

his purple gown ornamented with the star of 
his famous Order, he was still a King, and 
his worthless son had been Regent for ten years 
before death released the old monarch and the 
Regent became King of England. It was fortu- 
nate for the country that the Sovereign no longer 
possessed the personal influences of former days. 
Though the new King rivalled his predecessor 
Charles II. in wanton and riotous living, yet 
the social conditions of the age continued un- 
changed under the new regime. Indeed, "the 
last night of the Regency passed into the first 
morning of the reign of George IV. as an event 
that would be scarcely marked as an epoch in 
English history." But the new King was an 
expensive luxury to the nation. His coronation 
alone cost ;^243,ooo, though his unhappy wife 
was refused admission to the Abbey, and took 
no part in the proceedings. She mercifully died 
a few weeks later. Besides receiving a large 
annual income, he required his debts to be 
constantly paid, and large sums of money 
mysteriously disappeared. "If he had been a 
manufacturing town or a populous rural district, 
or an army of five thousand men, he could not 
have cost more," reflected Thackeray. 



ALMACK'S CLUB 339 

Court life was lessening its hold on the country. 
It did not attract the poets, the scholars, the 
architects, the journalists, the inventors, or those 
men who were busy in maintaining the greatness 
of their country. The Court life of earlier times 
had passed away. 

Next to the Court came an exclusive society, 
to which either a man belonged or he did not. 
There was little overlapping of class with class 
at this time : no tradesman could belong to this 
society ; doctors, bankers, and men with such- 
Hke professions, were outside the pale. Indeed, 
one writer tells us that there were but six 
hundred folk " in society " at this time. The 
test was admission into Almack's Club ; this 
was the " Royal Academy of Society," and many 
were the heart-burnings of those left outside. 
It was governed by a Committee of six English 
ladies, who decided who should be admitted to 
the charmed circle and who should not. Pedi- 
grees and family connections were carefully 
weighed, and tickets for the famous balls at 
Willis's Rooms were judiciously dispensed. 
Dancing began at eleven. With the disappear- 
ance of the powdered head and hoop petticoat, 
the minuet and picturesque old country dance 



340 MEN'S DRESS 

had vanished. The new dances were the waltz 
and quadrille, introduced in 1813, and the galop, 
or the " sprightly galopade " as it was called, 
while the modern lancers developed from the 
quadrille. Fashion dominated this exclusive 
club of Almack's. Trousers for men were 
making their way in, but as yet they were 
looked on as not quite correct for evening 
dress, and one evening, when the Duke of 
Wellington presented himself thus attired, his 
entrance was barred by an official, who ex- 
plained politely, " Your Grace cannot be 
admitted in trousers." The Duke bowed to the 
supreme decree and quietly walked away. By 
1830, however, trousers had become universal. 
A few years before this, the frock coat appeared, 
brass buttons went out, and black cravats came 
in. Indeed, dark colours for men's dress were 
introduced by George IV. himself, who wore a 
dark blue frock coat. A great deal of attention 
was still bestowed on waistcoats, and we recall 
the account of Joseph Sedley in "Vanity Fair," 
going to London in a waistcoat of " crimson 
satin embroidered with gold butterflies." Pumps, 
or shoes, were worn by this exclusive society, 
and a book of etiquette about this time quaintly 



POSITION OF WOMEN 341 

advises : " Never permit the sanctity of a 
drawing-room to be violated by a boot." The 
women of the period never wore boots, but light 
high-heeled shoes. Suitability of dress had not 
occurred to our great-grandmothers. They went 
out in November fogs and bleak January days 
clad in light delicate muslins and cambrics. 
Even the universal pelisse which was necessary 
for warmth was often made of azure blue 
sarcenet or flame coloured silk, while large 
Leghorn straw bonnets with blue ribbon bows 
and white feathers surmounted all. These 
bonnets grew steadily in size, till in 1827 they 
were as large as umbrellas. 

The necessity for suitable dress had not yet 
arrived. No woman in this society was called 
upon to work, and she had no independence. 
Marriage was the one and only career open to 
the lady of the early nineteenth century. 
" Women regarded themselves and spoke of 
themselves as inferior to men in understanding 
as they were in bodily strength." They con- 
sidered independence unfeminine ; they were 
conscious of their dependence on others and 
grateful for support. "Women," says a female 
writer of the period, "are something like 



342 MIDDLE CLASSES 

children — the more they show their need of 
support, the more engaging they are ; in every- 
thing that women attempt they should show 
their consciousness of dependence." " Never 
ask a lady any questions about anything what- 
ever," says the book of etiquette. "Familiarity 
is the greatest vice of society." 

But times were changing every day, and the 
barrier between class and class was breaking 
down at every stage. To marry fortune was 
the dominating idea of every well-born house- 
hold, and these fortunes were now being acquired 
by the middle classes of England. Here, too, 
we find the artistic, literary, and musical circles. 
From this great class sprang the novelists, the 
poets, the journalists, the writers that adorned 
the nineteenth century. Dickens, Thackeray, 
Keats, Wordsworth, Scott, Coleridge, Lamb, 
Maria Edgeworth, Harriet Martineau, Jane 
Austen, these did not belong to the exclusive 
circle chosen by the famous Committee of Six. 
They knew better than to apply. In the 
provincial towns and in the suburbs of London 
resided the middle class. Merchants and shop- 
keepers often lived in the City, but there were 
short stage carriages to such places as Islington, 



CLASS DISTINCTION 343 

Clapham, Camberwell, Highgate, &c., for those 
who could not afford their own carriage or 
horse. Every one in this set dined in the 
middle of the day. There were sociable even- 
ings with sit-down tea, cakes, muffins, home- 
made bread and home-made jam. No pipes 
were smoked in this community — only working- 
men smoked pipes ; but tobacco was still taken 
in the form of snuff by men and women alike. 
They had not many amusements. They had 
no lawn tennis, no croquet, no amateur 
photography. There were a few quiet archery 
parties, and punctilious calls at stated inter- 
vals on neighbours, when decanters of port and 
sherry, with biscuits, were put on the table. In 
provincial towns there was the annual interest 
of the county ball, when folk of the highest 
rank and fashion danced the newest step in the 
newest clothes, to the admiration of the local 
society. But, like "a Hindu caste," each class 
kept strictly to themselves. But when all is 
said and done, the most remarkable development 
of society during the nineteenth century has 
been in connection with the People. So far 
they had played no part in the government of 
the country, which was still wholly in the hands 



344 THE PEOPLE 

of the wealthy and powerful, while they, the 
workers — those who toiled with their hands, who 
gave their lives, courage, patience, skill, endurance, 
obedience; who suffered and died, striving not 
ignobly — had no share, nor was it possible for 
them to rise in the social scale. Truly this 
was impossible, as they had no knowledge and 
little or no education, while excessive gin- 
drinking was sapping away their very manhood. 
Nevertheless, it was from the people that arose 
the man who, by his own industry and inventive 
genius, changed the face of England by the rail- 
way system, which completely revolutionised the 
country. Born of parents too poor to pay for 
his schooling, living one of eight in a single 
room, Stephenson worked perseveringly at the 
improvement of the locomotive engine. Since 
the days of Watt, steam had made great pro- 
gress. In 1 8 19 the first steamer had crossed 
the Atlantic, and steamboats were plying on 
the Thames, but there were many who shared 
the hopes of one when he said : " This is a new 
experiment for the temptation of tourists . . . 
It was certainly very strange and striking to 
hear and see it hissing and roaring, foaming 
and spouting like an angry whale; but on the 



EARLY TRAINS 345 

whole I think it rather vulgarises the scene 
too much, and I am glad that it is found 
not to answer, and is to be dropped next 
year." Well-known, indeed, is the opposition 
that had to be overcome with regard to 
acceleration of speed. Men contended that even 
if a speed of fifteen miles an hour were attained, 
the dangers of bursting boilers and broken 
wheels would be so great that " people would 
suffer themselves to be fired off upon a rocket, 
sooner than trust themselves to the mercy of a 
machine going at such a prodigious rate." 
While " as to those persons who speculate 
on making railways general throughout the 
kingdom, and superseding all the wagons, mail, 
stage coaches, and post chaises — we deem 
them and their visionary schemes unworthy of 
notice." 

But nothing could daunt the brave spirit of 
this son of the people. The Liverpool and 
Manchester Railway was opened in 1829, and 
Stephenson triumphantly drove his engine at 
the hitherto undreamt-of rate of thirty-six 
miles an hour, a speed which was exactly 
doubled in 1885. There is no need to dwell 
on the success of the early railways — 



346 WORKING CLASSES 

" Half the marvels of my morning, triumphs over time 
and space, 
Staled by frequence, shrunk by usage into commonest 
commonplace." 

But although here and there some genius arose 
from out the vi^orking classes, they were as yet 
no power in the land. At Queen Victoria's 
accession 40 per cent, of the men and 65 per cent, 
of the women could not sign their names. Their 
wages were deplorable, and their employers 
could work them just as long as they dared. 
Any combined attempt at remonstrance was 
put down by force, until the murmur of dis- 
content grew louder and louder, and the Act 
forbidding working men to combine was repealed. 
Nor was this the only step taken to ameliorate 
the lot of the working classes of England at this 
time. A more merciful condition prevailed in 
our prisons. Men were no longer hanged for 
such trivial offences as heretofore. In 1832, 
the death sentence for sheep-stealing and 
forgery was abolished, and executions diminished 
steadily, until in 1841 capital punishment was 
enforced for murder only — "a life for a life 
was all the law could exact." Nevertheless, 
executions were still performed in public, and 



PRISON REFORM 347 

thousands still flocked to watch the spectacle, 
to " gloat over the sufferings of a dying fellow- 
creature " ; the bodies of criminals were left hang- 
ing on the gallows in public view, and it was not 
till 1868 that this publicity was stopped. The old 
barbarous punishments were disappearing. Hang- 
ing in chains was abolished in 1834, the pillory 
followed a few years later, stocks were superseded 
by the treadmill, and the ducking-stool was no 
longer used. Still reform moved slowly, and it 
was only thanks to philanthropic individuals that 
it moved at all. Prisoners of both sexes, innocent 
children and the vilest offenders, were locked 
up together awaiting trial. Overcrowding was 
so great that often the unhappy inmates had 
not room to lay down their weary bodies. For 
the first time now in our country's history it 
occurred to Englishmen that even the criminal 
had rights, and in 1824 new Gaol Acts were 
passed, by which every prisoner had a cot to 
himself; cleanliness was insisted on, and chap- 
lains, matrons, and schoolmasters were appointed. 
Pentonville Prison was built with its tiers of 
cells, and the horrors of Newgate, so often 
graphically depicted, were at an end. Transpor- 
tation to Australia was still at its height, and 



348 FIRST REFORM BILL 

in the year 1834 no less than 4,920 convicts 
were shipped off for life. 

The philanthropy of the time and the individual 
effort that preceded legislation had first secured 
the abolition of the slave trade, and then slavery 
itself in the English Colonies, a proof of the 
growing interest taken in the oppressed and 
afflicted by those in positions of power. But 
the most important step of all, in the light 
of modern events with regard to the rise of 
Democracy, was the passing of the Reform 
Bill, the salient points of which it will be well 
to repeat. Through the hot nights of July, 
1832, the Commons debated on this far-reaching 
measure, which secured to the middle classes a 
voice in the government of their country. Per- 
haps none saw the future of the British 
working man more clearly than Macaulay : 
" Your great objection to this Bill," he said, 
" is that it will not be final. I ask you whether 
you think that any Reform Bill which you 
can frame will be final. I believe that it will 
last during that time for which alone we ought 
at present to think of legislating. Another 
generation may find in the new representative 
system faults such as we find in the old represen- 



OPPOSITION 349 

tative system. Civilisation will proceed. Wealth 
will increase. Industry and trade will find out 
new seats. . . . For our children we do not 
pretend to legislate. All that we can do for 
them is to leave to them a memorable example 
of the manner in which great reforms ought to 
be made." 

The Bill passed the Commons, to be thrown out 
by the Lords, and intense excitement prevailed 
throughout the country. For the moment strong 
historical tradition triumphed over the desires of 
the growing middle class and the unexpressed 
rights and liberties of the people. But it was only 
for a moment. Sydney Smith summed up the 
position in one of his humorous speeches at 
Taunton. " The attempt of the Lords to stop the 
progress of Reform reminds me very forcibly of 
the great storm at Sidmouth, and the conduct of 
the excellent Mrs. Partington on that occasion," 
he said. "In the winter of 1824 there set in a 
great flood upon that town ; the tide rose to an 
incredible height, the waves rushed in upon the 
houses, and everything was threatened with 
destruction. In the midst of this sublime and 
terrible storm. Dame Partington, who lived upon 
the beach, was seen at the door of her house with 



350 CHARTISTS 

mop and pattens, trundling her mop, squeezing 
out the sea water, and vigorously pushing away 
the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused, 
Mrs. Partington's spirit was up; but I need not 
tell you the contest was unequal. The Atlantic 
Ocean beat Mrs. Partington. She was excellent 
at a slop or a puddle, but she should not have 
meddled with a tempest. Gentlemen, be at 
your ease and steady. You will beat Mrs. 
Partington." 

He had prophesied right. The Lords passed 
the Reform Bill the following year, by which 
all the newly developed towns were repre- 
sented, and the middle class of England secured 
a voice in the government of the country. 
True, the people themselves secured nothing, but 
they were hardly ready yet. A few years later 
and their turn came. " Give us," cried the 
Chartists, who represented the aspirations of the 
people, "give us, not government by the rich, 
but government by the people ; not protection, 
but political rights. Give us our Charter, and 
then will this dread interval of darkness and 
anguish pass away; then will that dawn come 
for which we have watched so long, and justice, 
love, and plenty inhabit this land and there abide." 



DEMOCRACY 351 

" The people were right. Democracy, so giant- 
like and threatening, which with rude strength 
severs sacred ties and stamps out ancient land- 
marks — Democracy, though in ways undreamt 
of, did bring deliverance. For Democracy is 
sudden like the sea and grows dark with storms, 
and sweeps away many precious things ; but, 
like the sea, it reflects the light of the wide 
heavens and cleanses the shores of human life." 



CHAPTER XXVI 

Circa 1837— 1865 

UNDER QUEEN VICTORIA 

"Far away beyond her myriad coming changes earth 
will be 
Something other than the wildest modern guess of you 
or me." 

Tennyson. 

SUCH a familiar atmosphere surrounds the 
period succeeding the accession of Queen 
Victoria, that it is hardly necessary to do more 
than suggest the changes that passed over 
England during the early years of her reign 
and briefly to indicate the great developments of 
the age. Though sovereignty in this country had 
lost its old influence, and the Court no longer 
played the same part in the life of the nation, yet 
the example of one so simple, pure-minded, and 
merciful as the young Queen could not fail to 
have an effect on those who were her acknowledged 
24 353 



354 END OF DUELLING 

subjects. She was married to a singularly earnest 
young Prince, and the Court atmosphere was soon 
cleansed and purified, till Lord Melbourne was 
heard to exclaim : " This damned morality will 
ruin everything." The excessive drinking, gam- 
bling, scandal, and loud swagger of the Georgian 
ages disappeared as by magic, and a somewhat 
superior respectability pervaded Court life. " No 
one dined here last night," comments a maid of 
honour at the new Court, " so we played vingt-et- 
un and I won 8d," If gambling was no longer 
the fashion, duelling too was coming to an end. 
The last public duel took place in 1841, when 
two well-known officers — brothers-in-law — fought 
till one was killed. Public opinion cried aloud for 
some other way of settling " affairs of honour," and 
a society for the abolition of duelling brought 
about the desired effect. For all this, manners 
were still rough : men and women talked in loud 
voices, they made ostentatious and vulgar display 
of their wealth, jokes were made in bad taste, 
personalities amounted to impertinence, and it was 
not uncommon in a crowd of well-born people to 
find many men and women with the very clothes 
torn off their backs. All these matters are within 
the memory of many. Within the memory of a 



PENNY POST 355 

rapidly decreasing number is one of the greatest 
events of modern civilisation — the institution of the 
Penny Post in 1840. It was a curious fact that, 
though the population had increased so enor- 
mously — six millions in twenty years — yet the 
postal receipts had actually diminished between 
the years 18 15 and 1835. The recipient and not 
the writer paid the postage, and a letter with seal 
unbroken, returned to the postman at the door, 
often betokened a poverty which could not afford 
to pay for news of absent relations. The story 
told by Coleridge, and repeated in every modern 
history of the period, illustrates the condition 
of postal arrangements at this time, when distance 
rather than weight augmented the price of a letter, 
which varied from 46. to is. 8d. — a serious outlay 
to business men. Means of transit, though im- 
proving, were still defective, and accomplished by 
horses and mail-coaches, as they had been since 
1783. It was only under favourable circumstances 
that a letter from London reached Hampstead 
in ten hours ! Rowland Hill, in his famous 
pamphlet, published in 1837, called attention to 
the difficulty of carrying on trade with such 
expense and delay in the postal service. And 
the inauguration of the Penny Post throughout 



356 TELEGRAPH 

England was the result. " Little bags called 
envelopes" had already been in use to prevent 
letter-opening by post-office officials, and now the 
familiar stamp with an impression of the Queen 
appeared in the right-hand corner, and writer 
instead of recipient paid for the letter. Letter- 
boxes now made their appearance in London, 
where letters might be posted any time between 
8 a.m. and 7 p.m. ; from these local letter-boxes 
everything went to the central office at St. Martin-le- 
Grand, so that a letter from one part of the town to 
another often took fifteen hours. Other now familiar 
innovations followed in quick succession. Book 
post, money orders, post-office savings bank, 
and post cards (1870) succeeded one another, each 
in turn adding vastly to the facilities of corre- 
spondence in the growing commerce of the land. 

A yet more rapid means of communication 
was now reached by the institution of the 
electric telegraph. The first was established 
across the twenty miles between Paddington and 
Slough in 1844. How step by step it gained in 
popularity is a matter of ancient history now. 
So, too, is the hitherto undreamt-of development 
which enabled men to lay the first submarine cable 
(185 1 ) and to transmit messages to the Continent. 



EAELY TRAVELLING 357 

The connection between the Old and New Worlds 
followed six years later ; Ariel's prophecy that 
he could " put a girdle round the earth in 
forty minutes " was thus fulfilled, and one of the 
greatest benefits to civilisation secured. 

Meanwhile railway lines were being hurriedly 
laid down all over the country. There were 
but 200 miles at the Queen's accession, there 
were 2,000 some seven years later. Lines were 
constructed from London to Birmingham, to 
Greenwich, to Southampton, to Croydon ; the 
Great Western had been running for two years 
before the Queen would venture by train in 1842. 
Each year saw the death of some famous coach, 
and as time passed on, the railway mania grew ; 
men talked in railway language about " getting up 
steam," they reckoned distance by hours and 
minutes, and the country became a network of 
lines, even as it is to-day. Still, the early days of 
travelling were far from luxurious. Arrived at 
the station, the intending passenger gave his 
name to the clerk, who wrote it on a large 
green paper, giving in return a metal badge with 
a number and the name of the destination. On 
receipt of this, the passenger paid his fare — about 
double what it is to-day — and took his seat. No 



358 FIRST BRADSHAW 

smoking was allowed either in station or train, for 
fear of fire. Indeed, the terrors of railway travel- 
ling were still great, and the Punch of the day- 
illustrates the spirit in which a journey was 
taken by a picture of the would-be traveller being 
presented with an undertaker's card ere he set 
forth on what might prove to be his last venture. 
It is not far to seek a parallel to-day in the raw 
beginnings of modern mechanical progression. And 
yet the speed in these days was but twenty miles 
an hour, and thirty years later it was still under 
thirty. True, the signalling was as yet rudimentary 
and insufficient. Sometimes a candle burning 
in a window told the driver whether to go on 
or stop, sometimes a lamp swung from a high 
post guided him to his destination. Stations 
sprang up with great rapidity, over 4,000 being 
built in thirty years. But all this, and much more, 
may be learnt from a comparison of the first Brad- 
shaw's Railway Guide published in 1839, six pages 
in length, with that published to-day, containing 
a thousand pages of intricacies. But in all this 
early travelling it was the third-class passenger 
who suffered most severely. A rich man might 
have his comfortable carriage placed on a railway 
truck and travel in it, but the third-class 



THIRD-CLASS PASSENGERS 359 

passengers were packed into open cattle trucks 
with movable seats placed across, and no provision 
for bad weather. For this they were charged 
i}d. a mile. The company's servants were strictly 
ordered to do no work for these unhappy persons, 
and only one slow train a day was run for their 
convenience at twelve miles an hour. Indeed, 
some of the companies refused to carry them at 
all. But to the astonishment of all, it was found 
that over thirteen million third-class passengers 
used the railway in the year 1845, while by i860 
the number swelled to ninety-three million, and 
they were legislated for accordingly. Not only by 
land, but by sea too,- was this improvement in 
rapid transit telling on social progress. The 
substitution of steam for sail caused a huge 
advance to the mercantile navy of England and 
the colonial expansion of the Empire. The first 
steamer had made its way across the Atlantic in 
1 819, but little important progress had been made 
till 1838, when the Great Western with sixty-five 
passengers and twenty thousand letters crossed from 
Bristol to New York in fifteen days. Although even 
this was regarded as something of a freak, and men 
solemnly declared that one might as well attempt 
a voyage to the moon as to run regularly between 



360 INCREASE OF WEALTH 

England and America, yet the growth was 
inevitably steady and rapid. Englishmen built 
English ships fitted with the new steam engines, 
whereby trade was carried on quickly and securely 
with the far ends of the earth, and the little State 
of old times, compassed so hopelessly by the 
inviolate sea, became the world-wide Empire it is 
to-day. 

Perhaps nothing so forcibly illustrates the 
immense growth of our over-seas commerce as 
the Great Exhibition of 185 1. It is only by 
comparative statistics that we can obtain the 
slightest idea of the vast increase of our national 
wealth. In the year of the Great Exhibition 
our imports were valued at one hundred millions, 
our exports at some seventy-five millions. In 
1865 our imports had nearly trebled and our 
exports doubled. Such increase of wealth told 
substantially on the middle classes of England, 
and their position rapidly improved. It told 
more slowly on the working classes, whose con- 
dition in the early forties was pitiful indeed. 
The industrial revolution had followed the 
introduction of machinery as a natural sequence. 
Riots and crimes were but the result of 
discontent and the prospect of starvation. The 



AN AGE OF ENQUIRY 361 

sufferings of the artisan class were intense. In 
Manchester, a tenth of the whole population 
lived in cellars without sunlight and filled with 
a "horrible stench." Here dwelt whole families, 
the children lying on the " damp, nay wet, brick 
floor, through which the stagnant moisture oozed 
up." Overcrowding in the large towns added 
horrors to the already impossible conditions 
under which the poor lived. In London the 
same state of things existed. But this was an 
age of enquiry and action. Men were no longer 
satisfied that a section of their fellow-country- 
men should live in misery and degradation. 
In 1838 there was an enquiry on "Combina- 
tion of Workmen"; in 1840 a Commission sat 
to consider the Sanitary Condition of the 
Labouring Population of Great Britain and 
another to enquire into the physical and moral 
condition of children and young persons em- 
ployed in mines and manufactures. Legislation 
had moved slowly with regard to the mining 
population, and little had been done since 1833, 
when the working hours for children under 
thirteen in factories were limited to eight. So 
apathetic was public opinion on the subject 
that a Ten Hours Bill for mine children was 



362 AGRICULTURE 

defeated again and again, till in 1847 it passed 
after a heated struggle. 

But machinery was affecting another section 
of the community at this time, and changing the 
lot of the agricultural labourer in the country 
districts. In 1838 the Royal Agricultural Society 
sprang into existence, with the object of encour- 
aging and improving the land, crops, and 
agricultural produce. Science was now applied 
to farming, which was no longer left to the 
" chance-directed discoveries of unlettered rustics." 
The rapid growth of manufacture had already 
given an impetus to agriculture, and wool, 
mutton, and beef had risen in value. Architects, 
chemists, geologists were all consulted ; money 
was expended on farm buildings, implements 
were improved, new varieties of crops introduced, 
live-stock breeding extended, a new system of 
manuring tried, while railways had already 
created distant markets for agricultural produce. 
All went well with the English farmer till 1846. 
Then came the failure of the potato crop in 
Ireland, involving starvation to some four million 
inhabitants, who had no other food-stuffs to fall 
back upon. Public opinion was stirred, and 
legislation was the result. Up to this time 



PROTECTION 363 

England had been able to produce her own 
corn, and all imported corn was taxed. Indeed, 
not only corn, but few articles came into the 
country at this time that were not taxed. In 
the words of Sydney Smith, there were " taxes 
upon every article which enters the mouth or 
covers the back or is placed under the foot ; 
taxes upon everything which it is pleasant to 
see, hear, feel, smell, or taste ; taxes upon 
warmth, light, and locomotion ; taxes on the 
raw material ; taxes on every fresh value that 
is added to it by the industry of man ; taxes 
on the sauce which pampers appetite and 
the drug that restores health ; on the ermine 
which decorates the judge and the rope which 
hangs the criminal ; on the poor man's salt and 
the rich man's spice ; on the brass nails of the 
coffin and the ribbons of the bride — at bed or 
board, downlying or uprising, we must pay. 
The schoolboy whips his taxed top ; the beardless 
youth manages the taxed horse with a taxed 
bridle on a taxed road ; and the dying English- 
man, pouring his medicine, which has paid 
7 per cent, into a spoon that has paid 15 per 
cent, flings himself back upon his chintz bed, 
which has paid 22 per cent, and expires in the 



364 FEEE TRADE 

arms of an apothecary who has paid a license 
of ;^ioo for the privilege of putting him to 
death . . . and he is gathered to his fathers to 
be taxed no more." 

The abolition of the Corn Laws in 1846 was 
the first step towards Free Trade, as it was the 
first step towards the decline of agriculture. It 
was followed by the abolition of duties upon 
hundreds of other articles. Prosperity reigned 
in every department. The rush for gold to 
California in 1848 and to Australia two years 
later helped to enrich Englishmen, who spent 
their fortunes for the most part in the Mother 
Country. The increase of wealth told on rich 
and poor alike. Luxuries were indulged in by 
all classes of society. People ate more meat, 
they smoked more tobacco, they travelled, they 
read. One recalls Pendennis and his mother 
(1850): " Besides the ancient poets, you may be 
sure Pen read the English with great gusto. . . . 
He read Shakspere to his mother (which she 
said she liked, but didn't), and Byron and Pope 
and his favourite ' Lalla Rookh,' which pleased 
her indifferently. But as for Bishop Heber and 
Mrs. Hemans, above all, this lady used to melt 
away and be absorbed . in her pocket-handker- 



THE TIMES 365 

chief when Pen read those authors to her in 
his kind, boyish voice. The ' Christian Year ' was 
a book which appeared about that time. The 
son and mother whispered it to each other 
with awe." 

The aboHtion of the stamp duties had reduced 
the price of daily papers. Even at the Queen's 
accession there already existed the Times, Morn- 
ing Chronicle, Standard (an evening paper till 
1857), Globe, and Morning Post. The Times, 
printed by steam, had reached a circulation of 
10,000 copies a day in 1834, while twenty years 
later it had increased to 52,000, and was exer- 
cising some influence on public opinion. 

But on the subject of dress public opinion 
was strangely blind. The " crinoline," introduced 
from Paris in 1854, had become popular, and 
remained in fashion for some fourteen years 
later. All the unsightliness and inconvenience 
of the Elizabethan hoop was revived, only the 
Victorian crinoline was yet more elaborate, 
with its Vandyke and scolloped flounces, its 
basques and bows, its frills and double skirts, 
its fringes, jet, gimp, beads and ruchings. So 
inconvenient were crinolines at a ball, that in 
order to create the same effect young ladies would 



366 EARLY VICTORIAN DRESS 

wear as many as fourteen starched petticoats ! 
In these they were driven to their ball "stand- 
ing up in their carriages." Silk dresses were 
very much the fashion of this period. " Every 
lady felt that a silk dress was necessary to 
her self-respect." In it she attended church on 
Sunday, paid her afternoon calls, or sat at home 
to receive her visitors. It was an age of shawls 
too — shawls with large patterns, shawls with 
light grounds and gay flowers. There is Mrs. 
Bungay (1850) dressed in her "gorgeous shot- 
silk dress, which flamed with red and purple," 
wearing a yellow shawl with red flowers inside 
her bonnet, and carrying a brilliant, light blue 
parasol. Caps were no longer worn under 
the bonnet, but a quilling of lace filled the gap, 
and a bunch of bright-coloured flowers was 
tucked under the brim. Muslin, cambric and 
pique were used as dress materials for young 
people, but at a comparatively early age all 
women retired into dresses of sombre colours, 
as befitted their advancing years. The black 
silk jackets, the wide flounced sleeves, the small 
round hats and the smoothly parted hair gathered 
behind into chenille nets — all these are familiar 
to us in the early photographs. The daguerreo- 



PHOTOGRAPHY 367 

type process, which received the image produced 
by the lens on a silver plate, visible by means 
of mercury, was discovered by Daguerre about 
1839. Eight years later, glass negatives coated 
with albumen were introduced, and collodion 
in 1 85 1 helped the wet-plate process, though 
the real revolution in photography did not take 
place till 1 87 1. 

So passed the early Victorian period with its 
new activities, its increased possibilities, its fusion 
of classes and enormous wealth ; but at the 
same time one cannot but note the decadence 
of taste and art, the amazing decorations of 
houses, the heavy adornment of rooms, the in- 
elegance of dust-preserving draperies, the chande- 
liers and elaborate patterns everywhere — through- 
out everything there was a want of simplicity 
and refinement in this age, which has been not 
inaptly called "twenty years of triumphant 
vulgarity." 



CHAPTER XXVII 

Circa 1865— 1885 

AN AGE OF WONDER 

"The old order changeth, yielding place to new." 

Tennyson. 

" '^ I ^HE Democratic tendency of our times, the 
^ upward movement of the popular classes, 
who desire to have their share in political life . . . 
is henceforth no Utopian dream, no doubtful 
anticipation. It is a fact . . . which occupies every 
mind, influences the proceedings of Governments, 
defies all opposition." ^ These words, spoken in 
1847, never rang more true than in 1867, when the 
working men of England demanded a new Reform 
Act. Crowded meetings with enthusiastic speakers 
had taken place in the thickly populated northern 
towns, while in London, the Hyde Park Riot 
emphatically compelled attention in the House of 
' Mazzini. 

25 369 



370 SECOND REFORM BILL 

Commons. "Your attention will again be called 
to the state of the representation of the people in 
Parliament." So ran the Speech from the Throne 
on February 5th. The Second Reform Bill was 
passed the following summer, and the working 
men in the towns of England for the first time had 
a vote in managing the affairs of the nation. It 
was yet another and important advance in the 
life of the people, who were pressing onwards as 
never before in human history. But another step 
became necessary to the social progress of the 
country. If the working man was to have a voice 
in the affairs of the land, he must, of necessity, 
be educated to fit him for this new capacity. After 
the first Reform Act, Parliament had assisted the 
general education of the people by an annual grant 
of money, on condition that an equal sum was 
raised by school fees and local subscriptions, and 
a Committee on Education was appointed to 
control the expenditure of public money. Not- 
withstanding this, education in England still 
owed much to private enterprise and philan- 
thropy. In 1865 there were still some 2,000 charity 
schools where children were only taught read- 
ing, writing, and the Church catechism. These 
schools were, as yet, untouched by the new 



TEACHERS 371 

influences of the century. The children were 
dressed in uniform so as to show that they were 
objects of benevolence, and they were frequently 
reminded of their low estate, their moral ideal 
being summed up in the couplet: 

"God bless the Squire and his relations, 
And make us keep our proper stations." 

All State-aided schools have been inspected since 
the early forties, but the small band of early 
Government Inspectors had their hands full. In 
1849 they had 681 certified teachers and 3,580 
pupil-teachers to inspect, but these very teachers, 
whose duty it was to train and teach the children 
of the poor, were but "the refuse of other callings." 
Their ranks were swelled by discarded servants 
and ruined tradesmen, " who do not know whether 
the earth is a cube or a sphere, whom no gentle- 
man would trust with the key of his cellar and no 
tradesman would entrust with a message " — men 
and women who, from some defect of body or 
health, were driven from the rougher struggles of 
muscular toil — consumptives in the last stages of 
disease, out-door paupers, or persons of over seventy 
years of age. None were too old, too sickly, too 
feeble, or too ignorant to regard themselves as fit for 



372 SCHOOL IN 1869 

teaching the unhappy young of these days — so 
unlike the honoured band of teachers who are 
doing some of the finest work in our land to-day. 
Look at a boys' school in 1869, the year before the 
great Education Act, which followed the Reform 
Act and formed a turning-point in the educational 
system of our country. In a small, low room, in a 
back court, there were forty-four boys of ages vary- 
ing from four to fourteen. In the middle sat the 
master, a kindly man, but a hopeless cripple, whose 
lower limbs appeared to be paralysed and who was 
unable to stand up. The boys formed a dense 
mass round him, swaying irregularly backwards 
and forwards, while he was feebly protesting 
against the noise. In a corner the wife was sit- 
ting " minding " the six or eight youngest children. 
The reading, entirely from the Bible, was bad and 
inarticulate ; no boy could explain the simplest 
words, and the master said he was not accustomed 
to ask questions. Only two boys could do an 
addition sum. The object of the schoolmaster 
was not to get the boys on too quickly, for as soon 
as the children knew a little, they were removed 
and the school pence stopped. Hitherto the State 
had aided existing schools, but no new schools had 
been provided ; the initiative taken by voluntary 



EDUCATION ACT 373 

bodies had been, so far, chiefly in connection with 
the Churches. But with the rapid growth of the 
population the Church organisation had become 
totally inadequate. So the famous Act of 1870 
passed, providing for School Boards to be created, 
with power to establish new State schools in addi- 
tion to the voluntary ones already existing. For 
the first time in her social history, England realised 
that her children were her " dearest possession," 
and undertook a system of National Educa- 
tion. The storms that were brewing at this time 
over religious instruction in the first Board schools 
are vexing our souls to-day. Finally, a system of 
so-called undenominational Christian teaching was 
adopted. New schools were now erected all over 
the country. In the year 1870 England had 
provided for 1,152,389 children. By 1885 there 
was an average attendance of 3,371,325. There 
is a further point connected with the spread of 
education in 1870 that calls for attention. In the 
new bodies elected by the ratepayers, women 
were members. They voted, proposed amend- 
ments, sat on committees, and took their share in 
the new national scheme of education. For their 
part as citizens of a great country they had been 
fitting themselves of late years, and their progress 



374 EDUCATION OF GIRLS 

in matters of education was remarkable. Up to 
1865, the general level of girls' education was 
for the most part deplorable. They were sent 
to boarding schools, where they learnt ladylike 
manners and deportment, and such accomplish- 
ments as their parents thought fit, in order that 
they might be admired in society, for this was 
the chief raison d'etre of a woman's education 
throughout the past. " Everything," says Miss 
Cobbe, "was taught in the inverse ratio of its 
true importance. At the bottom of the scale 
were morals and religion, and at the top were 
music and dancing." One of the best known 
girls' schools was kept by Miss Mangnall, the 
famous author of " Mangnall's Questions," a 
school-book much used in those days together 
with Keith's " Use of the Globes," Mrs. Trimmer's 
English History, and Pinnock's Catechisms. 
Here the girls learnt some literature, which 
consisted of Scott's longer poems and " The Vicar 
of Wakefield," read aloud by Miss Mangnall 
herself, geography, spelling, the catechism, and 
a little pencil drawing. For bad spelling the 
young ladies were invariably sent to bed. De- 
portment was strictly attended to : tortures in- 
numerable were invented to improve the figure 



LADIES' COLLEGE, CHELTENHAM 375 

— there were steel backboards covered with red 
morocco, strapped to the waist by a belt ; steel 
collars, stocks for the fingers, pulleys for the neck, 
and weights for the head. In morals the young 
ladies were sadly wanting, and their sense of 
honour was woefully uncultivated. They were 
greedy and untruthful ; they stole each other's 
cake, they fought and spread evil reports, and their 
punishments were both childish and insulting. 
They were made to wear dunce's caps, they had 
papers pinned to them describing their faults, they 
were whipped and sent to bed or rewarded by 
having good things to eat. The position of their 
teachers and governesses was unenviable, and the 
teaching profession for women was too often the 
refuge for the destitute. Their ignorance was 
deplorable. At one school we hear of a two-hour 
search through various lesson-books for the name 
of the Emperor of Russia, till finally teachers and 
pupils decided it must be Mahomet ! It was, 
indeed, time that the subject of girls' education 
should be discussed by a Royal Commission 
appointed in 1864, though already Cheltenham 
had led the way by opening a " Ladies' College," 
where a more sound education had been estab- 
lished than any heretofore attainable. Step by 



376 OPEISriNGS FOE WOMEN 

step the movement grew, demand created supply, 
local examination tested the efficiency of the 
new teaching. Strenuous efforts were made to 
obviate the criticisms of women's education in 
a report which declared that " want of thorough- 
ness and foundation, want of system, slovenliness, 
and showy superficiality, inattention to rudiments, 
undue time given to accomplishments and want of 
organisation," were responsible for female incom- 
petence. The Council of the Girls' Public Day 
School Company was founded in 1872, whereby a 
sound education for girls of all classes and creeds 
was established on a footing similar to that long 
enjoyed by boys. Other developments followed. 
In 1867 women were admitted to the University 
of London examinations : in 1872 Girton College 
was opened at Cambridge, followed by Newnham 
in 1875, and at Oxford, Somerville College and 
Lady Margaret Hall were founded in 1879; thus 
women were no longer forced 

"To drudge through weary life without the aid 
Of intellectual implements and tools." 

Meanwhile other professions were opening their 
doors to women. Florence Nightingale, in the 
dark Crimean days, had shown that the nursing 



NUESES 377 

profession was one eminently suited to women, 
who entered upon their new vocation with bound- 
less enthusiasm and dauntless energy. The 
substitution of trained ladies for such rough 
specimens as Mrs. Sarah Gamp and Mrs. Betsy 
Prig was in itself an inestimable blessing to 
mankind ; in addition to this, the movement 
created one of the greatest social changes of 
the century. No longer now was matrimony 
the only possible opening for any self-respecting 
woman, but henceforth she could justify her 
existence, fill her life with interest, and fulfil her 
destiny, by ministering to the relief of human 
suffering. 

"A child's kiss 
Set on thy sighing lips shall make thee glad ; 
A poor man served by thee shall make thee rich, 
A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong." 

How eagerly women grasped at this new outlet 
for their energies is best illustrated by figures. A 
training school for nurses was founded in i860, and 
started with fifteen probationers ; eleven years later 
there were thirty-two, and in 1889 as many as five 
hundred nurses had been sent out to work in 
the world. Women, too, for the first time now 
were allowed to take their places in the ranks of 



378 ANESTHETICS, 1848 

medical practitioners. The first Englishwoman 
took the M.D. degree of the University of Paris 
in 1870. Four years later further obstacles were 
overcome, and the School of Medicine for Women 
was opened. 

Indeed, on all sides medicine and surgery had 
made gigantic strides since the early days of 
Queen Victoria, and in no department has 
progress told more on the social life of the 
people. From 1838 to 1847 the death-rate had 
been twenty-two persons out of every thousand. 
In 1885 it was only nineteen per thousand. The 
discovery of anaesthetics in 1848 at once robbed 
surgical operations of half their terrors, while the 
establishment of a Board of Health, to enforce 
better sanitation and a higher degree of human 
cleanliness, had a decided effect on the health of 
the community. 

Mercy and pity, with a higher value on human 
life, were marked characteristics of the period, 
and though we are here only concerned with the 
material view of life in England, yet it is im- 
possible to separate matters spiritual from matters 
material, and a few words about the renewed 
activity in the religious life of English men and 
women seems necessary to explain many social 



THE CHURCH 379 

changes. Amid the "clash of new ideas," the 
inrush of mechanical invention, the progress in 
every branch of industry and science, the Church 
alone had remained " inert and lethargic." ^ 
Bishops in the early nineteenth century were still 
"amiable scholars," living in dignified ease apart 
from their clergy, Church patronage was in the 
hands of the large landowners, " faculty pews and 
rented sittings absorbed the best parts of the 
churches, and the poor were edged out into the 
corners of the aisles and the backs of the galleries." 
The beautiful cathedrals of past ages were looked 
on as " interesting museums," " picturesque sur- 
vivals of a barbarous past." But the restless 
activity of the age swept over the Church at the 
last. The repeal of the Test Act in 1828, allowing 
Dissenters to occupy official posts in the State, 
forbidden heretofore, was followed by Catholic 
Emancipation the following year. The Reform 
Bill of 1832, placing power in the hands of the 
middle classes, who formed the backbone of 
Dissent in England, aroused Churchmen to a 
sense of danger. At the same time a general 
awakening in Literature and Art was taking 
place, men were everywhere yearning after more 
* Wakeman. 



380 RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY 

sincerity and truth, and searching in past history 
to supply present needs. The activity in the 
Church took the form of the Oxford Movement, 
led by the saintly Keble, whose " Christian Year " 
had been published in 1827, Newman, Pusey, 
and others, who made their voices heard in a 
famous series known as "Tracts for the Times." 
A " Broad Church " party, led by Dr. Arnold, of 
Rugby, increased the newly aroused religious 
difficulty, which was not simplified by the 
immense advances now being made in the 
wakening world of science. Nor was this activity 
confined to the Church of England. Nonconfor- 
mity was growing apace, though still entirely con- 
fined to the middle class. Round chapel as round 
church clustered benevolent societies, penny banks, 
Sunday - schools, mothers' meetings, and mis- 
sionary societies. It has been observed that as 
commercial activity worked through companies, so 
religious organisations worked through societies; 
certainly they increased with extraordinary 
rapidity during this period. For all philan- 
thropic causes money was forthcoming, but if it 
was an age of wealth, so also was it an age of 
luxury. Our fathers drank more tea than their 
parents had ever thought of drinking, they con- 



INCREASE OF LUXURY 381 

sumed five times as much sugar, they drank more 
spirits, they ate more meat — a great deal more 
meat — and they smoked more tobacco. They 
lived in better houses, with a greater degree of 
comfort than hitherto dreamt of; there were 
carpets and armchairs for all, baths and hot 
water, such as had not existed in England since 
the days of the Romans. An inordinate love 
of pleasure grew with the growing wealth, and 
theatres, music halls, and palaces of variety en- 
tertainments increased and prospered. Athletics, 
too, became an absorbing passion with young 
Englishmen of every class. Cricket, football, golf, 
boating, yachting, swimming, cycling, these have 
all played and still play a large part in developing 
the physique of the nation's youth. Whole holi- 
days, undreamt of in past years, enabled toilers to 
travel : the working man could see his friends at 
the other end of England, the sea-side could be 
visited in a few hours and for a few shillings ; social 
intercourse was becoming easier day by day, 
social barriers were breaking down. Dress, food, 
amusements, education, were all, in varying 
degrees, common to all classes ; there was nothing 
to prevent every Englishman being a gentleman, 
every Englishwoman a lady, but perhaps it were 



382 AN ENGLISH GENTLEMAN 

well to remind ourselves of Thackeray's definition 
of a gentleman : " It is," he says, " to be honest, 
to be gentle, to be generous, to be brave, to be 
wise, and possessing all these qualities, to exercise 
them in the most graceful outward manner. He 
should be a loyal son and a true husband ; his 
life should be decent, his bills should be paid, 
his tastes should be elegant, his aims in life lofty 
and noble. He should havs the esteem of his 
fellow-citizens and the love of his fireside ; he 
should bear good fortune, suffer evil with con- 
stancy, and through good or evil always maintain 
truth." 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

Circa 1885 — 1906 

TO-DAY 

"And in to-day already walks to-morrow." — Coleridge. 

AVERY slight and necessarily inadequate 
sketch must cover the period which brings 
the story of Social Life in England up to the 
present time. Pre-eminently among all others, 
this has been an age of transition, and it is well- 
nigh impossible to attempt a description of it, so 
rapidly, so breathlessly is it changing from day 
to day. " It changes, it must change, it ought to 
change with the broadening wants and require- 
ments of a growing country, and with the gradual 
illumination of the public conscience." ^ Indeed, 
the words of Macaulay never rang more true than 
they do to-day when he affirms : " A point which 
* Lord Bowen. 



384 FREE EDUCATION 

yesterday was invisible is its goal to-day and will 
be its starting-point to-morrow." 

Amid the tumult and rush of modern social 
life two factors seem predominant — the rise of the 
Democracy to power, the large part played by 
the people for the first time in the history of our 
land, and the acceleration of speed — the ever- 
growing rapidity of transit. 

With regard to the first movement, which has 
already been traced step by step through the ages 
that are past, compulsory attendance at school, 
insisted on in 1870, and free education bestowed 
upon the nation in 1891, have contributed to 
important developments. The nation had at last 
realised that the children of to-day represented the 
England of to-morrow, and that their claims were 
predominant. The establishment of polytechnics, 
where lads fresh from school and already at work 
in the world could improve themselves, the im- 
provements taking place in secondary education 
and evening schools, the facilities for scholarships 
to enable a promising child to pass from the free 
school to the highest honours and privileges of 
the Universities — these have been powerful forces 
in the Democratic movement. " It is your duty 
to educate yourselves as far as lies in your 



SOCIAL EMANCIPATION 385 

power," said one ^ who realised the possibilities 
of this social revolution. "Your liberty, your 
rights, your emancipation from every injustice 
in your social position, the task which each of 
you is bound to fulfil on earth — all these depend 
upon the degree of education you are able to 
attain. Without education you are incapable of 
rightly choosing between good and evil ; you 
cannot acquire a true knowledge of your rights; 
you cannot attain that participation in political 
life without which your complete social eman- 
cipation is impossible." The door of learning 
once unlocked, there were plenty of keen, poor 
scholars eager to make their way upwards, to earn 
a living by their brains rather than by their hands. 
They forced the doors of the professions which 
had been jealously guarded throughout the ages; 
they climbed the social ladder as it had never 
been climbed before ; they rose " from corduroy to 
broadcloth, from workshop to counter, from 
shop to office, from trade to profession, from 
the bedroom over the shop to the country villa." 
These are common enough transitions to-day. 
Not only toil and industry, perseverance and the 
acquirement of knowledge, but the accumulation 
' Mazzini. 
26 



386 SOCIAL EEVOLUTION 

of money has helped the sons of to-day to rise to 
positions hitherto undreamt of in a country of 
slowly dying feudalism and haunting tradition. 
The possession of wealth can force position and 
power, gaining for a man of obscure origin the 
entrance to that sphere of society where he would 
be, for there is no committee of ladies of quality 
to bar his entrance to an exclusive society as 
prevailed at Almack's a hundred years ago. A 
modern Englishman of any birth, class, or occu- 
pation can represent his fellows in the House of 
Commons and rise to the House of Lords, he can 
have a seat in the Cabinet and attend the highest 
social functions in the land. There is hardly a 
local committee throughout the country without 
its working man representative ; on borough 
council and county council he sits side by side 
with the local grocer, the lord of the manor, 
or the hereditary peer. They are elected by 
the same community, they speak on the same 
subjects, they vote on the same amendments. 
At home they read the same newspapers, the 
same books are within their reach, they dress in 
the same clothes, they play the same games, they 
eat the same food. Never was any social revo- 
lution more silent, more swift and resistless. 



POSITION OF WOMAN 387 

Everywhere the old order of things is slipping 
away, everywhere the new and unexpected is 
asserting itself. Perhaps one of the greatest 
modern developments is that which has taken 
place in regard to the position of woman in 
England. The steps whereby she obtained her 
"emancipation" have already been noted. To- 
day society is still somewhat bewildered over her 
new status. Due to a series of uncontrollable 
circumstances, she has found herself independent, 
and often forced to support herself by finding 
labour in the overcrowded markets of our great 
cities. Emigration has not yet appealed to the 
women of England as it has to her sons, hence the 
extraordinary numerical inequality of the sexes at 
home. But in physique and general happiness 
the girl of the present is an infinitely happier 
being than her predecessor of some fifty years 
ago. She is better fed, better educated, better 
developed, and altogether better fitted for the 
great struggle of existence wheresoever it may 
lead her. Athletics, indeed, are common to all 
in these days. Their popularity has increased 
with astounding rapidity during the last decade, 
and in the absence of military training for pur- 
poses of national defence common to other 



388 LOVE OF AMUSEMENT 

nations, athletics are a necessary development 
for the physique of our rising manhood. Never 
was the desire for amusement stronger than it 
is now. The exchange of agriculture for that 
of factory life, the rush and competition of 
business instead of the quiet monotony of the 
country, forcing the rural population into 
England's large towns, those "vast hives of 
toil," where "labour crowds in hopeless misery" 
— these conditions have done much to depress 
and sadden modern life. The age has been 
called one of "growing and inevitable sadness." 
Gone are the gay-coloured garments of medieval 
England, gone the merry manners of Elizabeth's 
light-hearted subjects, gone the boisterous jokes 
of the century that is past. And in place of 
this there is a dim yearning for amusement, a 
restless love of excitement, a desire to drown 
depression and stifle worry. Men, women, and 
even children, flock to places of cheap amuse- 
ment for recreation which endeavour to supply 
the pathetic demand, thereby deteriorating public 
taste without satisfying morbid discontent. It is 
the same with cheap literature. Though the 
world's masterpieces are within the reach of all, 
the cry is for something sensational, adven- 



THE BICYCLE 389 

turous, or romantic. Athletics, then, form a 
healthful antidote, and the facility introduced 
by the bicycle has added happiness and health 
to all classes of the community. This age 
has seen 

"New men who in the flying of a wheel 
Cry down the past." 

If it has been the rich man's hobby, it has been 
the poor man's carriage — it has taken him from 
the crowded slum to the fresh air of the country, 
it has enabled him to live far from his work and 
rear his children among more possible surround- 
ings. Indeed, rapid transit is a necessity of 
modern city life, and never was it growing more 
rapid than it is to-day, thanks to the wonder- 
ful discoveries in the application of electricity, 
which has bidden fair to revolutionise modern 
society. 

It was one December evening in 1858 that 
the first electric light flashed over the troubled 
sea from the South Foreland Lighthouse, but 
private houses were not lit with it till 1878, 
when the introduction of the incandescent lamp 
made it possible. The advance of this huge 
force has been strong and steady, and year by 



390 MOTOKS 

year we have been compelled to acknowledge 
its irresistible power. The motor force of elec- 
tricity has persistently compelled attention, and 
a road speed hitherto undreamt of has been 
attained. Electric railways, with no smell and 
no smoke, have replaced the old steam engine, 
and motors, though still far from perfect, are 
designed to run at a high speed, though the 
arguments used against their noise, vibration and 
smell are precisely the same as those which were 
used in the days of the early railways. This 
tremendous acceleration in speed must in course 
of time effect a redistribution in the population 
of the overcrowded cities : the working man can 
make his home in yet purer air, the merchant 
and professional man can live on the coast, and 
the desolate land may once more ring with life 
and bustle. Only within the last few years has 
the telephone — that union of two great forces, 
sound and electricity — been making its way in 
England. In America it is already largely used 
but the old country moves more slowly in these 
latter days and leaves the younger nations to go 
" full steam ahead." As with the telephone, 
still run by private enterprise, so it is with 
wireless telegraphy, which is bridging over the 



WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 391 

human silence of the great waters, independent 
of storm or wind, truly one of the most wonderful 
developments of a wonderful age. 

And still at the beginning of the twentieth 
century we await the air ship. It is now over 
sixty years since Tennyson prophesied its success : 

" Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic 

sails. 
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with 

costly bales; 
Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain'd 

a ghastly dew 
From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central 

blue." 

The fulfilment will surely come, and that before 
very long now. But this age of transition and 
experiment has also been called an age of 
materialism. It has been stated again and 
again that commercial prosperity has raised 
England to a perilous height, and that with 
the wealth, luxury, and worldly ambitions that 
have come in its train. Englishmen have lost that 
faith to which their ancestors owed so much of 
their content and happiness ; that commercial im- 
morality has taken the place of the integrity that 
of old characterised our commerce and raised 



392 TKANSITION 

our English merchants once and for ever above 
those on the Continent ; that the unceasing 
and selfish desire for money has blinded the 
eyes of our fellow-countrymen to their duties 
as members of the greatest Empire the world 
has ever seen ; that patriotism, which prompted 
men of old to lay down their lives, is a dead- 
letter to-day. 

Perhaps this is hardly a question for the 
student of social life in England, especially in 
a sketch that deals only with material progress, 
as far as it can be treated apart from the 
influence of religion, literature, and art, with 
which it is inextricably mingled. But it would 
be inconsistent, with the English character, as 
briefly noted in these pages, to end with a note 
of pessimism. Similar crises have occurred in 
our social history before, if in a lesser degree, 
and Englishmen have ever weathered the storm, 
even as their Anglo-Saxon ancestors had done 
before them. And even now, in spite of the 
accusations of luxury, of commercial immorality 
and of want of ready patriotism, there are gleams 
of something higher, signs of a larger humanity 
than ever before, and of a more perfect 
brotherhood. 



TO-DAY 393 

" When each of you," said Lamennais, 
"loving all men as brothers, shall reciprocally 
act like brothers ; when each of you, seeking 
his own well-being in the well-being of all, 
shall identify his own life with the life of all, 
and his own interest with the interest of all ; 
when each shall be ever ready to sacrifice 
himself for all the members of the Common 
Family, equally ready to sacrifice themselves for 
him, most of the evils which now weigh upon 
the human race will disappear, as the gathering 
vapours of the horizon on the rising of the sun." 

Dimly by the light of past ages, men think 
they can discern a nation 

"Made free by love, a mighty brotherhood 
Linked by a jealous interchange of Good." 

Much has already been accomplished, but much 
remains. "There is no such thing as finality." 
Nerved, strengthened, encouraged by those who 
have created the present from the past, in the 
spirit of those fearless, ever-hopeful ancestors who 
braved the unknown seas and greeted England 
with a cheer, let their descendants face the future — 

"Push off and, sitting well in order, smite 
The sounding furrows." 



APPENDIX 

Being a list oj some articles^ not necessarily alluded to in the 
text, but interesting additions to the domestic and social life 
in England. 

Chapter II., circa b.c. 55-A.D. 410. 



Alphabets. 
Bricks. 






Gardens. 
Geese. 


Bridges. 

Brooms (long-handled). 

Butter (used medicin- 

ally). 
Cakes. 


Glass. 

Lamps. 

Oysters. 

Pheasants. 

Rabbits. 


Candles (rushes 

grease). 
Cherries. 


and 


Rice. 

Roads. 

Thimbles. 


Chesnuts. 






Villas. 


Chickens, 






Water-pipes. 


Coins. 






Wax. 


Dice. 






Wine. 


Donkeys. 









Chapter III., circa 449-597. 



Bagpipes. 

Beer. 

Crossbows. 



Stirrups. 



Witenagemote. 



396 SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 



Chapter IV., circa 597-1066. 



Altar, 634. 
Backgammon. 
Bridge (first stone). 
Cathedral. 
Christian names. 
Church (first stone). 
Churchyard, 750. 
Counties, 978 (32). 
Fair, 886. 
Garters. 



Glass (brought to Eng- 
land), 6^6. 

Gloves. 

Gregorians. 

Knight, 900. 

Monasteries. 

Organs. 

Quill pens, 636. 

Small-pox, ninth cen- 
tury. 



Chapter V., circa 1066- 1204. 



Chess. 

Company, 1 170 (first 

formed). 
Furs worn, 1125. 



Mustard. 
Sugar, 1 150. 
Windmills. 



Chapter VI., circa 1 204-1 250. 



Banns of marriage, 12 10. 
Bowls. 
Coal, 1245. 
Coronets (earls). 



Glass windows, 1238. 

Sarcenet. 

Satin. 

Wooden shutters. 



Chapter VII., circa 1 250-1 348. 



Armour plated, 1330. 
Barrister, 1 291. 
Battledore and shuttle- 
cock. 
Blankets, 1340. 



Butcher's shop (first) 

1279. 
Cannon, 1346. 
Captain (ship). 
Carpets, 1307. 



APPENDIX 



897 



Chapter VII. {continued). 



Chimneys, 1347. 

Cider, 1284. 

Commons, House of, 

1265. 
Duke (first), 1337. 
Esquire, 1345. 
Feather beds. 



Gunpowder. 

Halfpennies and far- 
things, 1276. 
Lords, House of, 1332. 
Pins, 1347. 
Spectacles, 1292. 
Watch, 1305. 



Chapter VI 1 1., circa 1 348-1 399. 



Almanac, 1380. 
Bath, Order of, 1399. 
Cards, 1390. 
Cookery book (first), 

1390. 
Crocus. 
Damask. 
Duchess (title), 1397. 



Forks, 1379. 
Garter, Order of, 1350. 
Marquis (first), 1385. 
Picquet, 1390. 
Side-saddles, 1388. 
Spinach, 1351. 
Worsted for curtains, 
1380. 



Chapter IX., circa 1 399-1485. 



Book first printed, 1471. 
Book first illustrated, 

1476. 
Butter first used on 

bread. 



Brass pins, 1483. 
Drawing-rooms. 
Hops, 1425. 
Spurs, I4(X). 



Tongs. 



Chapter X., circa Fifteenth Century. 



Bed (four-post). 
Breakfast. 
Glass bottles. 
Paper made, 1498. 
Shilling, 1504. 



Sovereign, 1489. 
Wax candles, 1484. 
Winchester and Eton 
founded. 



398 SOCIAL LIFE m ENGLAND 

Chapter XL, circa 1 509-1 547. 



Cabbage, 1 5 10. 

Carrots, 1540. 

Clock (first portable), 

1525. 
Fans, 1532. 
Firearms, 1521, 
Hats, 1 5 10. 



Knitting, 1527. 
Lettuces, 1520. 
Mufifs, 1532. 
Nightgowns, 1522. 
Pistols, 1544. 
Rhubarb, IS34, 



Chapter XII., circa 1509-1558. 



Apricots, 1524, 
Artichokes. 
Bullets (iron), 1550. 
Canaries, 1555. 
Church pews. 
Church pulpits. 
Crayons. 
Crowns (silver). 
Currants, 1533. 
Fireworks. 
General (army). 
Geraniums, 1534. 



Handkerchiefs, 1558, 
Lemons, 1554. 
Lotteries, 1539. 
Mignonette, 1528. 
Mulberry, 1520. 
Periwigs. 
Pippins, 1525. 
Prayer-book (Edward 

VI.). 
Sealing wax, 1553. 
Steel needles, 1545. 
Strawberry, 1530. 



Chapters XIII. and XIV., circa 1558-1603. 



Articles of Religion, 

1571. 
Baize. 
Billiards. 
Cambric, 1563. 
Cartridges, 1580. 
Carnations, 1567. 
Cauliflower, 1603. 



Celery. 

Chair (Sedan), 1581. 
Chapel, Dissenting. 
Coach, 1580. 
Fox hunting. 
Glasses (looking). 
Indigo, 1581. 
Minuet. 



APPENDIX 



399 



Chapters XIII. and XIV. {continued). 



Muskets. 

Newspaper (first), 1588. 
Paper mill, 1588. 
Pipes, 1573. 
Potatoes, 1563. 
Silk stockings, 1561. 



Starch, 1560. 
Telescope, 1570. 
Theatre. 
Tobacco, 1573. 
Tomato. 
Tulips, 1 571. 



Chapter XV., circa 1603- 1642. 



Alum, 1608. 
Baronet, 161 1. 
CaHco, 1 63 1. 
Coach (hackney for hire), 

1625. 
Coffee, 162 1. 
Cricket, about 161 1. 



Forks (general use), 16 10. 
Microscope, 1621. 
Paper on walls, 1620. 
Quakers, 1624. 
Straw plaiting, 1605. 



Wigs. 



Chapter XVI., circa 1642-1660. 



Actress (first), 1656. 
Advertisement, 1647, 
Biscuits, 1644. 
Blue, 1647. 
Chocolate, 1657. 
Clover, 1645. 
Excise, 1643. 



Mezzotint, 1649. 

Post office founded, 1660. 

Skates, 1651. 

Soap, 1647. 

Stage coach, 1658. 

Turnips, 1645. 

Yachting. 



Chapter XVII., circa 1 660-1 689. 



Bayonets. 
Brandy, 167 1. 
Coach, Flying, 1677 
(40 miles a day). 



Cork stoppers and bottles 
Dragoons (first regi- 
ment), 1683. 
Marines, 1684. 



400 



SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 



Chapter XVIL (continued). 



Muslin, 1670. 
Newspaper (first 

weekly), 1661. 
Patches, 1660. 
Pencils. 
Penny post in London, 

1683. 



Speaking trumpet. 

Sticks (walking). 

Tea, 1660. 

Tooth brushes. 

Violins. 

Whig and Tory, 1679. 



Chapter XVIII., circa 1689-1702. 



Bank of England, 1694. 

Freedom of press, 1695. 

Harpsichord. 

Hearse. 

India rubber, 1700. 

Lighthouse (first), 1697. 



Mahogany, 1695. 
Newspaper (first daily), 

1695. 
Street lamps, 1694. 
Teapot and cups. 
Tea urn. 



Chapter XIX., circa 1702-1714. 



Artillery, Royal, formed. 

Celery, 1704. 

Cigars. 

Doileys. 

Italian opera, 17 10. 

Puddings. 



Ribstone pippins, 1707. 
Snuff. 

Spectator^ 171 1. 
Thermometer (Fahren- 
heit), 17 10. 



Chapter XX., circa 1714-1727. 



Duels. 
Gin. 

Inoculation for small- 
pox, 1722. 



"Robinson Crusoe" pub- 
lished, 1720. 
Workhouse (first), 1723. 



APPENDIX 



401 



Chapter XXI., circa 1727-1742. 



Box iron, 1738. 
Circulating library, 

1740. 
Coffee-houses for ladies, 

1739. 
Foundling Hospital, 

1739- 
Grog, 1740. 



Gentleman^ s Magazine^ 

1731. . 

Inoculation for small- 
pox (free), 1740. 

Iron rails, 1738. 

Methodists, 1729. 

Porter first brewed, 1730, 



Chapter XXII., circa 1742-1785, 



Axminster carpets, 1755. 
Bank notes, 1745. 
British calico, 1783. 
British Museum, 1759. 
Canal, 1755. 
Cards (visiting), 1770. 
China factory, 175 1. 
Derby. 

Greenhouses, 1760. 
Houses numbered in 
London, 1764. 



Pianofortes, 1767. 
Port wine, 1756. 
Post-chaise, 1749. 
Public weddings, 1753. 
Regattas, 1775. 
Royal Academy, 1768. 
Spinning jenny, 1764. 
Sunday schools, 1781. 
Tunnel (first), 1766. 
Umbrellas, 1756. 



Chapter XXI 1 1., circa 1785-1802. 



Bleaching, 1788. 
Coach (mail), 1784. 
Colonial bishop (first), 

1784. 
Convicts transported, 

1787. 



Gas, 1792. 
Pig-tails, 1795. 
Times started, 1788. 
Uniform for navy. 
Vaccination, 1798. 
Volunteers, 1793. 



27 



402 SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 



Chapter XXIV., circa 1 802-1 820. 



Blackwood's Magazine^ 

1817. 
Bridge (suspension), 

1819. 
Dahlias, 1804. 
Lancers, 1820. 



Quadrille, 18 13. 
Shoddy, 1813. 
Steamer crossed 

Atlantic, 18 19. 
Waltz, 18 1 3. 
"Waverley," 18 14. 



Chapter XXV., circa 1 820-1 837. 



Abolition of slavery, 

1833. 

Alpaca, 1836. 

Bazaars, 1833. 

Liberal and Conserva- 
tive, 1830. 

Lucifer matches, 1833. 



Mackintoshes, 1825. 
Oil (paraffin), 1830. 
Omnibus, 1829. 
Polka, 1830. 
Train (Liverpool and 
Manchester), 1830. 



Chapter XXVI., 1837-1865. 



Baths (public), 1846. 
Book post, 1857. 
Bradshaw's Guide, 1839. 
Brougham, 1839. 
Cable (Atlantic), 1865. 
Cheques, 1 856. 
Chloroform, 1848. 
Crinolines, 1854. 
Electric hghting, 1858. 
Envelopes, 1837. 
Free Hbrary, 1852. 



Money orders, 1838. 
Penny post, 1840. 
Photography, 1847. 
Post-office Savings Bank, 

1861. 
Royal Agricultural 

Society, 1838. 
Sewing machines, 1854. 
Stamps, 1840. 
Telegraph, 1837. 
Torpedo shells, 1861. 



APPENDIX 



403 



Chapter XXVIL, 1865-1885, 



Bank holidays, 1 871. 
Bicycles, 1867. 
Board schools, 1870. 
Cocaine, 1884. 
Parcel post, 1883. 
Pneumatic tires, 1881. 



Postcards, 1870. 
Postal orders, 188 1 
Telephones, 1870. 
Tricycles, 1878. 
Typewriters, 1866. 



INDEX 



Agriculture, 34, 82, 106, 158, 

302, 362, 364 
Architecture, 69, 124 



B 

Beds, 65, 120, 172, 187, 188 
Black Death. See Epidemics 
Briton (ancient), lo, ii, 16, 18, 

28 
Burial, 3, 7, 26, 44, 247 



Cards, 183, 220, 277, 317 
Castles, 64, 76, no 
Celt, 8, 48 

Children, 40, 70, 153, 155-157, 
198-200, 241, 242, 257, 278, 

327-331. 361, 371-374 
Church, 49, 54, 67, 68, 91, 
123-133, 149, 203, 217, 286, 

297, 379 
Clothes, 2, 5 
Coach, 130, 188, 201, 229, 259, 

269, 2S7, 288, 345 



Dance, 183, 292, 340 
Danes, 57, 58, 61, 64, 72, 73 
Democracy. See Working class 
Dissenters, 203-206, 300-302, 

379, 380 
Dress, 3, 5, 12, 16, 18, 23, 43, 67, 
88, 89,90, 118, 119, 137-140, 
175-178, 192, 207, 208, 224, 
248, 260-263, 300, 304, 305, 
310, 314, 331-333, 340, 366 
Drinks, 11, 36, 37, 67, 166, 
230-233, 238, 270, 271, 292, 
317, 354, 380 



Electricity, 389, 390 
Epidemics, 105, 225, 246, 280 



Fairs, 84, 159 

Feudal system, 63 

Food, 2, II, 23, 24, 36, 38, 66, 
77, 78, 79, 80, 112, 113, 114, 
141, 193, 218, 252, 253, 254, 
290-1, 343 

Free trade, 364 



405 



406 SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 



Games, 43, 94, 96, 209, 210, 
221, 223, 277, 278, 292, 343, 

387 
Gardens, 55, 115-117, 158, 167- 

171, 205, 237, 289 
Gas, 335 



H 

Hair, 12, 18, 32, 39, 44, 67, 89, 
117, 138, 175, 209, 223, 262, 

311, 333 

Hawks, 50, 91, 92, 183 

Houses, 2, 4, 10, II, 21, 35, 65, 
76, 81, no. III, 112, 166, 
167, 172, 205, 269, 289, 367 



M 

Manners, 80, 81, 1 12, 192, 219, 
236, 259, 263, 264, 292, 293, 
354 

Marriage, 37, 52, 195-198, 321, 

341 
Matches, 336 
Medical, 56, 99, 100-104, 146, 

147, 226, 227, 228, 247, 279, 

281, 325, 378 
Methodists. See Dissenters 
Middle classes, no, 164, 165, 

241, 316, 319, 342-3, 350 
Monastery, 54, 55, 59, 70, 150, 

152 



N 

Names, 16, 52 

Neolithic, 3-8, 9 

Newspapers, 215, 230, 257, 258, 

285, 365 



Norman, 57, 62, 64, 68, 70, 72, 
73, 76, 124 



Palaeolithic, 2 

Parliament, 64 

Photography, 367 

Plays, 133, 183-185, 209, 319 

Post, 201, 259, 355, 356 

Punishments, 53, 96, 97, 142, 

182, 217, 272, 273-275, 331, 

347, 375 
Puritans, 192-214, 216, 303 



R 

Railways. See Steam 
Receipts, 24, 56, loi, 103, 104, 

114, 146, 193, 227, 233 
Religion, 26, 27, 44, 48-60, 68 
Roads, 19, 28, 76, 128, 159, 229, 

284, 285, 288 
Romans, 15-30, 49 



Saxon, 31-46, 48, 57, 64, 67, 

70, 72, 73 
Schools, 55, 126, 152, 154, 

155, 241, 328-331, 370-376, 

384-5 
Servants, 120, 180, 293, 294, 

295, 296 
Shoes, 23, 43, 88, 118, 138 
Small-pox. See Epidemics 
Spinning, 5, 158, 305 
Spirits, 82, 270 
Sport, 2, 26, 42, 92-94, 144, 145, 

182, 209, 220, 222, 236, 286, 

303, 318, 381 
Steam, 324, 327, 344-346, 357 



INDEX 



407 



Taxation, 28, 64, 363 

Trade, 9, 28, 82, 83, S5, 131, 
163, 164, 165, 240, 252, 264, 
306, 309, 313? 360, 362 

U 

Umbrella, 316 

University, 85, 155, 241, 384 



Vikings, 57, 61, 62, 162 



W 

Weapons, 2, 4, 8, 13, 16 
Wesleyans. See Dissenters 
Women, 19, 39, 93, 106, 131, 
132, 139, 158, 159, 181, 194, 
208, 211, 213, 214, 244, 245, 
259, 290, 292, 320, 341, 377 
Working class, 82, 90, 106, 107, 
108, 142, 143, 153, 158, 165, 
I79> 276, 302, 304, 306, 344, 
346, 348, 351, 361, 370, 386 



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